The Bane Of The Undead
by Spam5192
Summary: A Sonadow Fanfiction. How far would you go for love? To the ends of the earth and back again. For Sonic, love proves to be a killer. A strong, powerful, sly, cunning hedgehog. Potentially evil. Hang on, something's seriously wrong here. Change is on the horizon. The Blue Blur with another deadly secret and the emotionally rollercoaster that comes with being different.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**

How far would you go for love? To the ends of the earth and back again. For Sonic, love proves to be a killer. A strong, powerful, sly, cunning hedgehog. Potentially evil. Hang on, something's seriously wrong here. Change is on the horizon. The Blue Blur with another deadly secret and the emotionally rollercoaster that comes with being different.

 **Chapter Contents**

Chapter One – Different

Chapter Two – Robbed

Chapter Three – Transformation

Chapter Four – Reborn

Chapter Five – Vanished

Chapter Six – Consequences

Chapter Seven – Quadruple

Chapter Eight – Instinct

Chapter Nine – Chaos

Chapter Ten – Linked

Chapter Eleven – Dubbed

Chapter Twelve – Cure

Chapter Thirteen – Emeralds

 **Chapter One – Different**

What do you do when your the fastest thing alive? Have a ball? All the time? No. Life wasn't that straight forward. Having super-speed comes with major responsibility. Even though from the way you act, everyone doesn't think so. It comes down to the laws of physics, you know, speed times acceleration equals force. For example, If you fall, traveling at speed, the force of it would kill you. It comes with risks, big ones, but trying to explain that, everyone just laughs. You make it look so easy.

This was a daily dilemma for Sonic The Hedgehog, yes, he did make it look easy. But he had been doing it all of his life, he literally knew nothing else. He also knew that there were people who would do anything to get at his powers. That's what scared him. Such a high level Chaos power, such as super-speed, comes with a heavy price tag. An extremely heavy price tag, as both he and Shadow The Hedgehog knew only to well. His long, royal blue quills flowing down his back, shimmering in the moonlight through the window, his long legs, dangling over the edge of the bed, swaying too and fro, his cherry red shoes with the famous red stripe shining in the evening light. His white gloved hands supporting himself on the edge of the bed as he sat there thinking.

For Shadow, the price he'd paid for his super-speed and Chaos powers was the death of a loved one, his only loved one, Maria. Which was extremely harsh, but Sonic had paid his own price for his powers. He was faster that Shadow, always will be and there was nothing the black hedgehog could do about it. There was a good reason for it. Sonic was cursed, and as a creature of Chaos light, being cursed with evil was hell. This was his price tag and he hated it. The curse was the source of his super-speed. Chaos only enhanced it. Shadow's powers of super-speed was purely Chaos based and therefore somewhat limited by them. There were times, when Sonic would've have given anything to swap places with Shadow. Yes, the death of Maria was extremely sad, and yes, it had nearly destroyed him, but at least you can recover, you can move on.

Sonic didn't have that luxury, and this constantly played on his mind. He stood in his room in Tails' house, thinking, all alone, the middle of the night outside. Sonic always found the darkness comforting and very rarely, especially these days, slept through the night.

Tails' house is a large house with two large bedrooms. One each for Sonic and Tails, and a bathroom upstairs, and a large open-plan lounge-kitchen-diner downstairs which was in a large L shape, the small kitchen was set towards the back of the house and the lounge towards the front. There wasn't exactly a dining room there, but a large breakfast bar which was doubled as kitchen work surface.

The lounge took up all of the front of the house, along the longest edge of the L shaped room and there were sofas everywhere. All misshaped, all different sizes and colours. There was enough space to sit ten to twenty people. To the side of the kitchen was the staircase, which run up through the centre of the house and the other side of that was another large room. It was separate from the open-plan living space and could only be entered and exited by a single door. It was Tails' Workshop. Sonic had not idea what went on inside that room most of the time, but it was very grateful of it, the inventions that came out of there had saved his life on more then one occasion.

Even though this was technically Tail's house and Sonic was a permanent guest in his 'guest' room, Knuckles was another semi-permanent guest who could often be found lounging on one of Tails' sofas. But the kid fox did get a 'hell of lot of visitors' in Sonic's opinion, as almost all of their counter attack plans against Eggman were always derived at Tails' House. How the hell Eggman hadn't found them yet, was completely beyond Sonic's comprehension and right at that very moment, Eggman was the least of his concerns. He was still sat on his bed in his room. A large square room with the door in one corner and in his bed in the opposite corner, with a window next to it. Around the edge of the room there was a wardrobe, a chester draws, a desk and chair and a bed side table. In the centre of the room, there was a large amount of floor space, of which Sonic liked to just lie on the floor in the middle of it.

The room was white and very bland. Sonic had very little in material wealth, items he could truly call his own, but he did have a thing for photographs. Every flat surface was covered in framed photographs, most of which were of Sonic and Tails when they were small children. There were, however, photographs of everyone he called a 'friend'. Knuckles, of course, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat.

Amy. Why she was there, he had no idea, she did his head-in but he had be seen in keeping up appearances.

Team Chaotix. Sonic smiled, when he saw that photo of Vector, Charmy and Espio. How those guys managed to make any money from their Detective Agency they ran was a mystery in its own right. But they were good guys and could always be relied upon if he needed anything.

The Babylon Rogues. He found himself staring at the photo of Jet. He growled at him. Jet may have known how to have fun at a Grand Prix but Sonic didn't trust him. He was desperate, and desperate people can be dangerous. Jet might do something he might regret, to do anything to beat Sonic anywhere. He really wasn't keen.

Finally there was a photo of E123 Omega, Rouge and Shadow. Shadow didn't look to impressed about caught on camera. Sonic's eyes moved to this photo and he smiled broadly. He was head of heals in love with the Shadow. He had been ever since he'd met him. His groin began to tingle, as it always did when he thought of that gorgeous black hedgehog. Shadow always looked spotless whenever he saw him, and he always wandered how the hell he did that. Sonic always looked scruffy, no matter what he did. It just wasn't fair.

Sonic didn't care anymore about what people thought about his love for Shadow. To be honest, his curse was more of a concern and he had become extremely good at hiding it. As for Amy, he hated her. He didn't just hate her, he downright loathed her and he would do anything to permanently get rid of her. One idea that had crossed his mind, was to swipe her memory and sell her to a brothel. There, she would never bother him again. He giggled at that. It was a very un-Sonic-like way of thinking. It was his curse and Shadow's influence getting the better of him. This was happening more and more these days. The evil in his curse getting stronger and his the Chaos light within him shrinking. It was like it was eating him from the inside out, a very unpleasant feeling but not painful.

This worried Sonic. He has tried everything, but nothing worked. He was born this way and there nothing he could do to stop it. One day, he could be as dark as Shadow, maybe worse. That was the thing about Chaos. It was pure, extremely pure. So pure, in fact, that it didn't care whether Sonic was good or evil, it could do either perfectly. To be of pure goodness which he had done regularly or pure evil, which he hadn't done, or rather, been push into doing...yet. This had been making the curse more difficult to hide in recent weeks but he was still certain that no one knew. Sonic turned and walked towards the open window, looking out. A warm clear night outside, all quiet along the rolling hills and valleys of Tails' rural neighbourhood. He sighed.

Changes were happening, big changes and he could feel it. He didn't how much longer he would be able to stay or keep his friends. He also had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to keep his secret for much longer and potentially be forced into leaving. His suspicions were confirmed the next day, though he didn't know it when a meeting was called. Nothing unusual there. It was just another 'Anti-Eggman' meeting. They had those all of the time. But this meeting was to prove the beginning of the end of Sonic's life as he knew it.

The usual suspects were there, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat...

'They really shouldn't be here.' Sonic used to think, 'They could get themselves hurt.' But the rabbit and the cat always surprised him, despite their shortcomings. Team Chaotix were also there, their go-to guys for stuff. Amy, who insisted on clinging to his left arm, which extremely annoyed him. But to his delight, Shadow was there. Sonic shouldn't have been surprised to see the love of his life there, Shadow was very curious about Sonic and his friends, attending every meeting, but very rarely took part in any missions. Every since the incident on the Ark, he had gone to them. He had no memories and needed help. He received with a lot of aggression from them, and was asked to leave, but Sonic managed to convince his friends to give the black hedgehog a chance. To prove his trustworthiness, which he has done since, repeatedly. Sonic was the only one who stood up for him. Why? Two things, one, Sonic's loved him and two, he saw the black hedgehog was innocent in all of this. He had not been born evil, he has been created that way, he hadn't had the choice, he had been forced into it.

Sonic had the suspicion that Shadow choose him and his friends, because they never really told him what to do. Requested his help, made suggestions, yes, but never gave him a direct order, which Eggman did constantly. He felt here that he was free, free to make a choice, to help them or not. Freedom was something Shadow's life had been constantly lacking. Imprisoned from birth, forced to carry out orders against his will, freedom was something he cherished whenever it came in his direction. This low-life group of juvenile sapients gave him some freedom, and he was willing to put up the stupid antics to have it.

Sonic glanced over to Shadow. He was stood at the other end of the lounge, in the shadows, unemotional, his back against the wall, listening intently to the conversation, not paying the slightest bit of attention to him. This was usual for the black hedgehog. But Sonic still loved him for it, anyway. He got that tingling feeling again. 'Stop it!' He told his brain.

Eggman had been building a new base close to Tails' house. It was to too close for comfort and finding ways of taking it out, was the current topic of the conversation.

"Right, the location of the new base lies on the intersection of districts 26, 27, 28 and 29. Whoa, this thing is massive!" Tails had been reading out from an intelligence chart, showing it to the rest of the group. His house was in district 32, when meant that the base was only a few miles away. Districts was how Eggman had divided up the land in his territory. Each district was only a mile square and Tails' house was in the middle of it, despite the fact it was there first. Tails' house has been in his family for centuries and Eggman had only taken over the area a few decades earlier. Therefore it had to be destroyed. "Currently, the base is about six weeks from completion." Tails continued. "Any ideas?"

"Go in, destroy the place and get out!" Sonic said as a side comment, "Isn't that what we normally do!" He giggled.

Everyone looked at him, thoroughly unimpressed. Tailed glared at him.

"No, seriously, how are we going to take out the base?"

"Actually, the idiot has a point..."

Silence reigned across the entire room. The person who has just spoke had a eerie ice cold voice that could have only come from one person...Shadow. Everyone stared. Shadow may have attended all of these meetings but he rarely spoke. Sonic got that tingling feeling again, which he tried to shake off. Shadow didn't move from his location in the shadows and his voice remained ice cold and emotionless. He seemed to turn towards Tails.

"You said that the base was six weeks from completion. That means that the main generation that powers the whole place isn't up and running yet. Destroy that and you will put Eggman's plans back somewhat."

"And how the hell would you know that." Knuckles jested.

There was a short silence, but Sonic had the suspicion, even though you couldn't see him in the shadows, that Shadow was smirking.

"I used to work for him, remember!" His voice now even colder. Silence filled the room again.

"I'm surprised you do, I thought Eggman had swiped your memory." Rouge asked.

Ah...That was purely Sonic's doing. Some months ago, he had managed to persuade Shadow to accompany him on an adventure, which he hated doing, but this time was different. It had involved some ancient Chaotic symbols he has found on a temple in the middle of a jungle. Sonic had wanted Shadow's opinion on them. As it turns out, they spoke of a Dark Angel that had fallen to the ground and was destined to save the world. Either way, what happen in the temple involved all seven Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald (which they had temporarily borrowed) and a lot of light. The net result was Shadow getting his memory fully restored. He could remember everything. Absolutely everything. From his non-existent childhood, where he went from an infant to an adult in just sixteen days and from the Ark and Maria to Sonic and Eggman.

This blow Shadow's mind, and he started grieving for Maria all over again. He also wasn't best pleased with Sonic and left quite abruptly. Sonic hadn't seen much of him since then, but today he seemed calm about the whole affair. Scarily calm in fact. It seems that he had managed to deal with his memories flooding back to him and put his past behind him, again. Sonic was amazed that Shadow still willing to be among them. He had chosen to be there.

Sonic could feel Shadow's eyes on him. Shadow was aware that no one apart from Sonic and himself knew of what happened. Despite his initial anger with Sonic, Shadow had been extremely grateful to him for restoring his memories, but like hell he was going to tell him.

Shadow then shot a glance at Rouge, all eyes in the room on him. There was some anger in his voice.

"Things change!" he spat at her. He glared at her but continued. "I have a suspicion where the generator might be. Eggman has the tendency to build his bases to a set blueprint..."

Rouge cut across him.

"A blueprint you happen to remember." She mocked him.

Shadow moved out from the shadows and walked right up to Rouge, silently and very fast, staring at her, his nose a few inches from hers. He hissed.

"Every detail!" His voice was ice cold and no more then a whisper. Shadow had a look in his eyes that had never been there before. A spark. Before, his eyes were always blank, due to his lack of memory. Rouge gulped. In fact most of them did. Shadow had been dangerous before, but now he had his memory fully restored, he potentially more dangerous as he was now extremely unpredictable. Sonic too was scared. He was beginning to think that restoring Shadow's memory may not a been such a good idea. Rouge got here nerves back and spoke.

"What happened to you?"

Shadow smirked, he was getting colder by the second.

"I have been... enlightened." He said mockingly, but before Rouge could say anything, he continued. "Do you want my help in destroying this base or not?" He was growing very impatient.

Before anyone could say anything, Tails ran across the room and put himself between Rouge and Shadow, facing the black hedgehog.

"Yes please." The fox pleaded. Tails knew that he was their only chance to stop Eggman. "What do we need to do?"

Shadow lip curled as he agreed. He was the centre of attention and for once, calling all of the shots, and was loving it. He was going to tell them what to do, for a change.

Sonic got the feeling in the room that trust for Shadow was wearing thin, and that people were looking at him wondering what the hell he did. Sonic tried not to give the impression that he had done anything. He had, but wasn't going to tell them that.

The rest of the day, Shadow formulated a plan to take out the base. It was brilliant. It fully utilised the skills of everyone there. It was going to be a two pronged attack. The speedsters (Sonic and Shadow) would attack the base head on. Causing mayhem but mainly acting as a distraction. While a second team consisting of Tails, Amy, Rouge, Knuckles which sneak in the back way, find the main generator, disable any worker robots, and set charges. Then the speedsters would go in, grab everyone, get out and boom, no more base. Amy wanted to go with Sonic but Shadow stopped her immediately. Sonic quietly thanked him, but she wasn't happy about it. Cream, Cheese and Big would act as lookout in case Eggman sent for backup in the form of robots from other bases. Shadow knew that was highly unlikely, but he had to give them something to do.

Sonic had been gooey eyed on Shadow all day, both impressed and in love with the black hedgehog. Sonic had got the feeling Shadow had noticed. Thankfully no one else did. But he didn't care anymore. He preferred this new Shadow, even though he was capable for being far more evil. Sonic really liked that. His curse grew a little at the thought. Sonic didn't stop it. He didn't want to stop it anymore. It was too painful. He was growing evil himself everyday and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The date had been set for the attack, tomorrow at dusk. The meeting point was a clearing in a small wood, a few hundred metres from the base.

Tomorrow, everything would change.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two – Robbed**

The sun was low in the sky when Sonic arrived in the clearing, the following evening and to his surprise, was the last to arrive.

"What kept you?" Amy hollowed as she ran towards him and instantly clinged onto his side. Sonic sighed, he had given up trying to fight her off.

'One day' He thought, 'One day, you will want nothing to do with me.' The evil within him rose. Shadow silently passed them and gave Amy such a cold look and she immediately let go. They were there for a reason and it wasn't to play cling-on.

Shadow looked around, everyone was assembled.

"Ready?" he said, looking around. They all knew their roles, and what to do. Sonic grew excited, this was the part of attacking Eggman he enjoyed the most. Using his super-speed to cause absolute havoc. Shadow knew this, so when he gave the signal, Sonic was off like a shot, out of the clearing, then the woods, straight towards Eggman brand-new base. Sonic's excitement drove him forwards, breaking the sound barrier with ease, if anything, a little too easily. Shadow was having major trouble keeping up with the Blue Blur, something he has always been able to do. He stared at the blue hedgehog, where did this extra strength come from? But there no time to contemplate that as they entered the base, a little sooner them planned. But Shadow figured that wasn't a problem. He would let the blue hedgehog go nuts, and gave the signal to Sonic to do exactly that.

Sonic now shaking with excitement, could no longer contain himself and at speeds well in excess of Mach one, he rolled himself into a ball and attacked every robot in sight. He went crazy, and Shadow had major problems keeping from being hit and well as attacked robots himself. The alarm was sounding, lights were flashing, hordes of robots descended on them, if Eggman didn't know they were here, he did now. He aimed missiles at them, bullets, lasers, bombs, everything he had. It was getting downright dangerous. Shadow was getting concerned but he knew with Eggman throwing everything at them, he wasn't paying any attention to second group who were sneaking around the back.

Sonic was having the time of his life. He was loving every minute. Being in this kind of battle, this dangerous, was what he was built for. Moving at speed, spinning, bouncing from one robot to the next, dodging missiles, bullets, lasers and bombs. Oh yes, he was having a good time. So much so, that he didn't see it coming. Nobody saw it coming.

It hit him square in the chest, during the split second he was jumping in mid-air and not curled into a ball. Something fast and so bright, that it completely blinded him. He felt it go straight through him and out of his back, taking something with it. Physically ripping it from him. It was excruciatingly painful. He screamed in agony. He was held in mid-air by this light and then, as suddenly as it arrived, the light vanished, and he fell to the ground. He knew what had just hit him.

Lightning. In the middle of a battle? How could it have happened on a completely clear night, like tonight. Unless Eggman had learned to control lightning. Two things came to Sonic's mind at that thought, one, they would have already known, he and his friends spy on Eggman all the time, and two, it would make him extremely dangerous indeed. Sonic fell to the ground hard, and quickly realised that he had a serious problem. He had never been hit by lightning before, he was always been too fast for it. But he was certain it wasn't supposed to feel like this. The 'lightning' had ripped something from him and Sonic could feel a large void of where it had been. He put his hand on his chest, there was a large hole there, burnt black and bleeding quiet badly. He felt very weak and started blacking out. Not just blacking out, he was struggling to breathe.

He was dying.

He felt himself fall into the darkness and soon all was quiet. He vaguely remember his name being called, but soon that quickly slipped into the distance. He closed his eyes and slipped away...

All of a sudden, Sonic woke with a start. He was lying where he fell, partially covered in rubble. He sat up and was amazed to find the pain gone. He looked down at his chest and was stunned to find it completely healed, except for a black mark. He looked around, it was still dark, but the sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn. But the base was eerily silent. Where was everybody? Eggman, the robots, Shadow, his friends. There were nowhere to be seen. The place was a mess, rubble everywhere, with random fires burning. Looks like Shadow's plan had been success. Did they really leave him behind when those charges when off? They must have believed he'd got out. They would never have thought to go back in for him, they had never needed to in the past. Sonic just hoped the others got out in time.

He brushed the rubble off of him and tried to get to his feet. Thats when it happened. The void that had been created by the lightning, had be filled and restored, by his curse, which was now so strong, that it was attempting to control him. Sonic didn't have any strength to fight back. He blacked out again.

By the time Sonic came to, he was stood on his feet, in the middle of a forest he didn't recognise in the middle of the night, again. To say Sonic was confused was an understatement and he was now extremely frightened. The strength of the curse had weakened and he was now able to think straight. He looked around, and saw a deer dead on the ground at his feet, holes in the neck, bleed dry. A sweet taste in his mouth. Sonic went white. He had done this? He didn't remember. He began to panic. Where were his friends? Where was he? His eyes fell on the deer again. Now he knew, what the curse was, what he was. Finally, it all made sense. He had had his suspicions for years, but because he had never met another like him, he just didn't know. He looked around, it seemed that he hadn't hurt anyone when he had lost control, he was completely alone. He couldn't afford to do that again. The only thing he could do now was to totally embrace the curse and try to control it from the inside out. This was new territory for Sonic, but he didn't have the choice.

Now he was more concerned about his friends, now that his curse had been settled, he had the chance to go and find them.

He took off running as fast as he could, in a random direction. He didn't know where he was, so he'd thought he run until he recognised somewhere, he could get his bearings from that. He quickly left the woods behind, and ran down narrow lanes. It was pitch dark, and yet Sonic has no trouble seeing the road ahead. He was changing fast. He couldn't do that before today. He turned a corner and found himself on the outskirts of a city. A city he instantly recognised. He screeched to a halt. Central City! What else had he been up to when he'd been blacked out?

There were many cities on Mobious, Mobotropolis, Empire City, Westopolis, and Station Square to name a few but Central City was considered the dump of the entire planet. Drugs, violence, prostitution, brothels, all ran rife here. The term illegal didn't exist here. You could literally get absolutely anything you wanted here and unsurprisingly enough, it was one of Shadow's favourite haunts.

But what was Sonic doing here? He usually avoided Central City like the plague. Thankfully, he knew the way to Tails' house from here. That was because of the number of times he had to come to Central City looking for Shadow. The downside, it was the opposite side of the planet to Tails' House. It was a half day's travel at full speed. That wasn't a problem, now that Sonic knew where he was and how to get home. He had a huge amount of energy in him, nothing like he had felt before. That deer really hit the spot, almost to the point, where he was wanting more.

Sonic shook the thought out of his head as he set of towards Tails' House.

'Maybe later.' He thought. He raced over hills and down lanes, leaving the bright city lights behind him. Through the countryside the ran, past villages and towns and as the sun rose, he could just make out Eggman's territory in the distance. Sonic screeched to a halt again when the sun hit his eyes. It blinded him. The sun didn't pain him in any way but it did take some time for his eyes to adjust to the light. They much preferred the darkness now.

He set off again, breaking the sound barrier as he went. It was easier then ever now. Through Eggman's territory and towards Tails' House. Sonic looked around as he went, but the fat human was nowhere to be seen. This was strange. You could always hear some sort of mechanical noise in his territory which gave you some indication as to where Eggman was but today it was eerily silent. Where was he? But Sonic's mind was suddenly taken off that when he reached Tails' House and found it crawling with people. He stopped just short of the door as he could hear shouting from inside.

"Where is he?" One voice said. Sonic recognised it but couldn't remember where from.

"We don't know, we have looking for him solidly for the last three days." said another. That was Tails defending him as usual.

Three days! Was that how long he had been gone? Stunned, he put his hand out for the door, only to have it open on it own. He found himself face to face with Knuckles.

"Where have you been? We have been worried sick!" he exclaimed but before Sonic could answer, he was pulled inside and into the centre of the lounge. The weirdest scene's ever seen greeted him. Everyone was there, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat, Amy and Shadow but it was Jet who caught his attention.

Jet, a green Hawk and a member of the Babylon Rogues was one of Sonic's biggest rivals when it was to speed and extreme gear. He was curled up on the floor, screaming in agony, and Wave, a pink Swallow, another Babylon Rogue, was sat over him. It was obvious she had been screaming blue murder at them. Sonic was very confused, what were Jet and Wave doing here? and what had it got to do with him? Also there was another thing. There was a strong smell of sugar in the room, so sickly sweet, that made Sonic's curse bubble and somewhat difficult to shake off. Sonic tried desperately not to let it show.

"What's going on?" He asked, as a open question.

"What did you do to him?" Wave spat back at him.

"What!" Sonic responded in shock. He looked around at his friends. "I swear." He defended. "I never touched him." Silence filled the room until Wave finally spoke, again.

"He said it would work, he said he would be like you!" She cried.

"Who did!" Knuckles said before Sonic.

"Eggman!" cried Wave. Everyone looked at her. Sonic tried to remain calm but the sweet smell was really getting to him, making his stomach rumble. It wasn't pleasant.

"Wave, what did you do?" He asked as gentle as he could.

"He said that if he used lightning and a conductor on you, we could..." Wave let the sentence hang, frightened.

"Could what?" Sonic glared at her, he was getting impatient with her. He was going to snap with the sweet smell soon, it was making him hungrier by the second. Wave sniffed.

"We could steal your powers from you and give them to Jet!" Everyone in the room gasped. But for Sonic, it all made sense. They had tried to rob him but looking at the state of Jet, he got a bit more then they had bargained for. He backed up from them, the sweet smell was now to much. He needed food and he needed it now. He could feel the curse swelling upside of him and taking over, Chaos darkness increasing and yet somehow he was still in control.

Waves was in tears, she was pleading with him. "Please help us!"

Sonic smirked, now the darkness really took over and he didn't care anymore. They tired to rob him and now they were asking him for help. How dare they! He knelt down so he was at eye-level with Wave, he hissed at them, his voice ice cold, sounding like Shadow.

"Why should I?" Sonic spat at them, in a tone very unlike him. Everyone was staring at him, he knew he was acting very strange but he just didn't care anymore.

"Were you really that desperate?" Sonic snarled again. Jet rolled over to look at him and looked very scared indeed.

"I would do anything to beat you!" Jet muttered in a severely cracked voice, he was shaking with the pain.

"Like what?" Sonic spat again. "Selling me out to Eggman. The attack on the base was a trap, wasn't it." He was now getting angry. The others around him was shaking even worse now.

"He approached us. He said that if I did this, I could get your powers and he would get rid of you permanently." There was a long pause. "But you came back. You weren't supposed to come back. How did you do it?"

Sonic smirked.

"You underestimated me!" His voice was so cold that it sliced the now extremely quiet room. Then the silence was broken by a scream of pain from Jet. Sonic's lip curled, he leant over towards Jet.

"It hurts doesn't it!" he hissed. He delighted in hearing his most annoying rival scream in pain. He could see Wave's jugular vein throb and he couldn't take his eyes off it. He needed it, he wanted it. He was about to go for it, when he felt a hand around his neck. He was pulled off his knees, onto his feet and up against the wall. A pair of crimson red eyes glaring at him.

Shadow.

He didn't even hear the black hedgehog move.

Next to Knuckles, Shadow was one of the strongest people around and Sonic couldn't initially fight him off. Shadow could also see Chaos, so he must have seen Sonic's darkness growing within him.

Shadow was worried, he wasn't sure if he was liking what he was seeing.

"Back off!" Shadow hissed at Sonic, their noses very close together as he had pinned Sonic up against the wall.

"Why should I?" Sonic hissed in return, he was feeling surprisingly calm despite the situation, he was beginning to understand what it was like to be Shadow, and Sonic was rather enjoying it. He continued. "They started it by trying to rob me!"

Shadow thought for a moment. "Why didn't they? The theory should have worked, lightning and conductor is enough to transfer Chaos powers from one person to another."

Sonic smiled, he knew exactly why it didn't work. He hissed again. "Sounds like they blasted the wrong hedgehog!" He said, mocking Shadow. This angered the black hedgehog. He tightened his grip on Sonic's neck. He was beginning to struggle to breathe.

Shadow glared at him.

"Who are you?" he asked in disbelief.

Sonic grabbed Shadow's hand on his neck.

"I think you mean 'what'!" He said and before Shadow could answer, Sonic's anger and curse got the better of him. His eyes turned blood red and the canines in his top jaw began to hurt. He pushed against Shadow, grappled with him and easily fought him to the ground. No one had ever done this to Shadow and everyone was stunned. Even Shadow, who had never felt such strength before, not even in Knuckles.

"Vampire!"

Immediately everyone backed away, gasping. It was Knuckles who had spoken and he felt such an idiot for not noticing sooner. Sonic's mysterious abandonment as a baby, no family despite years of searching, his ability to escape from most unbelievable battles unscathed, and his speed. There was only one creature who could travel that fast and yes, they had existed but were believed extinct.

Hearing the word 'vampire' seemed to snap Sonic out of his darkness and go back to normal. For that was what he was and he knew it. He had always known, he just didn't want to believe it. Tears began to roll down his face.

Shadow was back on his feet beside him, unharmed except for his pride. He shook his head in disbelief.

"I saw you get hit by that lightning during the fight but by the time I got to you, you were already dead!" He puzzled.

"What!" cried Tails. "You told us that he had left the fight early and not to worry!" Shadow growled and spat back.

"Yes, because I intended to go back for the body after it was all over, but by the time I got back..." Sonic cut across him.

"I was already gone." He said, looking at the large black mark on his chest. Shadow noticed. He smirked.

"Seems that I'm not the only one around here who can regenerate!" He paused. There were further gasps. He ignored them. "But I was only gone a few hours, you completely regenerated in that time!"

Sonic nodded, that sounded about right, the lightning strike was not the first time he had regenerated. Shadow looked suspiciously at him.

"How often have you regenerated?" He asked.

Sonic sniggered to himself. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty much after every fight with Eggman!" Everyone stared at him. "What!" he exclaimed. "It's not a decent fight if you don't end up dead at end of it." It was an attempt to try and lighten the mood, but it failed, epically. They were all still staring at him.

"Why did you tell us?" Tails pleaded.

"Would you have believed me!" Sonic snapped back, "and..." he added, "I wasn't a hundred percent sure myself. All I knew was that I was cursed and that one day it would take me." Sonic's anger was coming back. "It seems today is that day!" he leered at them.

Wave squealed, Sonic had completely forgotten about her.

"What about Jet?"

Sonic smirked again but Knuckles cut across him before he could answer.

"It seems he got a major dose of vampire venom instead of Sonic's powers..."

"He's turning, like me." Sonic snapped back. "And like me, he will turn into a monster."

Wave screamed, tears down her face. Sonic put his hands over his ears.

"Look, there's no cure, believe me, I've looked." He glared at her. "I have been looking all my life." Then he sighed. "I was born this way."

There more gasps across the room again.

"That would make you a Pureblood, properly the last of your kind." Rouge thought aloud.

"It would explain his ability to regenerate." said Shadow. "But Vampires are known for their longevity, not their immortality. If you really are the last of your kind, you would have the powers of an entire species within you." Sonic stared at Shadow, he had a point. But then it dawned in him. He hissed quietly back at him.

"What about your ability to regenerate?" Shadow snarled and backed off, fuming. He has struck a cord with the black hedgehog. There was silence between them until someone spoke.

"I don't think you will turn into a monster." Said a small voice in the background. It was Tails. But Knuckles cut across him.

"He won't if he hasn't tasted blood."

Sonic's eyes went wide. The word 'blood' triggered the vampire instincts within him to surge to the surface again. The hunger was back with a vengeance. His eyes went blood red and his fangs began to grow. He immediately found himself being restrained from behind again. Shadow. Knuckles swore very loudly.

"He has tasted blood. When did that happen?"

Shadow replied. "Must have been during the three days he was missing."

Sonic struggled against him, but he held on, just.

Rouge came to Knuckles' side.

"Can we trust him? He didn't tell you he was a vampire." Knuckles sighed.

"Your right, but we don't have time for that now. We need to find a cure." Rouge stared.

"A cure?" They all looked at each other. Knuckles looked concerned.

"Yes, for Jet. There is nothing we can do for Sonic. He was born this way, he's on his own now." Wave looked up at Knuckles, hoping.

"Do you think it will work?" She asked. Knuckles looked at her.

"Possibly, because he was blasted with vampire venom, not bitten, we may able to reverse it."

All of a sudden Sonic roared. He sounded like a tiger. Shadow just managed to keep hold. He was getting stronger by the second. Amy, and Cream and Cheese squealed. They had been cowering in the back, hugging each other throughout the entire incident, too frightened to do or say anything. Amy could see the darkness in Sonic. She wanted nothing to with him anymore.

Now Sonic was really struggling, he was loosing control of the vampire within him. He was so hungry. Knuckles saw this and opened the door.

"Shadow, let him go." The black hedgehog stared at him, about to argue. But Knuckles continued. "He needs to feed..." He paused for a moment. "Go with him, make sure he doesn't hurt anyone." Shadow nodded, and pointed Sonic towards the door and let him go. Sonic raced out into the daylight, breaking the sound barrier. He was hungry for blood, on the hunt.

Knuckles grabbed Shadow just before he left. "Find the cure, if you can. I'll watch Jet and be careful."

Shadow nodded and ran after Sonic, into the countryside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three – Transformation**

Shadow wasn't sure what to think as he left Tails' House. His mind has been blown several times over the last few hours and he now had a vampire to track down. Sonic was fast, really fast. He had had is suspicions for some years. His memory had been somewhat patchy during that time, but he did enjoy reading, mainly gothic horror and the occasional supernatural fantasy. He had read about vampires and some of their traits seemed to have appeared in Sonic. For the longest time, he had believed that vampires were just pure myth, but he had just recently found out that they had actually existed.

Now his memory was fully restored, he remembered everything about vampires as he has been made to study them in his early years. Why? He couldn't remember. Shadow found that highly unlikely, his memory was photographic and perfect when not being swiped, it was more likely he was never told. Now he was worried, on the trail of a real vampire with his own origins under question. He had to find Sonic and quickly.

Shadow knew Sonic, he would never kill anyone, but now Sonic was a vampire. Not just any vampire, but one that had tasted live blood. This changes everything.

'Why didn't he tell me?' Shadow thought as he raced through the countryside after him, past towns and villages. But Shadow has a hunch that he hadn't told anyone, not even Tails. He must have been extremely frightened.

He raced through a wood and to Shadow's annoyance, he lost Sonic's scent in there. He swore loudly. He had to find the vampire. Firstly, out of duty, he has told Knuckles he would. He had great respect for thatEchidna. A lot of people saw him annoying and extremely gullible but for Shadow, his honesty, leadership and selflessness was much to be respected. And secondly, was he was extremely curiously about Sonic and the vampire within him.

He had felt and seen the darkness within Sonic. He had seen it for some months and for a hedgehog who had a reputation for be good, it caught Shadow's attention. Where had it come from? He used to think. Was it just a phase? Had something happened to him? Then to find out today that Sonic had always had the darkness within him and that he had be hiding it for years, stunned Shadow. He had to admit, he was impressed. But the fact that he wasn't a hedgehog at all. That took some sinking in. But the more Shadow thought about it, the more obvious it was. He had often thought where Sonic had got his powers from. His abilities, such as super-speed was a classic vampire trait, but he hadn't made the connection before due to memory issues.

The sun was setting as Shadow searched the wood, the temperature was dropping. He shivered slightly as darkness set in. He hated being out in the cold. He liked the temperature controlled environment the Ark offered, his home and despised the cold, even though he was more the capable of bearing it. Shadow was getting more and more impatient as he wondered every path with no luck, and he was just about to pick a direction a run, just to get out of the enclosed space, when he heard it.

The scream came from just beyond the wood. He bolted towards the sound and screeched to a hold. The edge of the wood wasn't far from a village, lit with lights and fires. Shadow could hear further screams. A dark figure was moving extremely fast between the buildings. Shadow had found his quarry. He took a deep breath. He had never dealt with a vampire before, he had no idea what would happen. But if he didn't do anything, someone would almost certainly get killed and that wasn't Sonic's way, despite everything. Then Shadow caught Sonic's scent again and it seriously triggered his own Chaos darkness. The scent was changing, there wasn't much hedgehog in there, something else was taking over. Vampire. Also the scent was thick with Chaos darkness, Sonic was slowing loosing his fight against it.

Shadow allowed the his own Chaos darkness to take over. This was where he was most happy and now he had a rival. Was he going to let another dark creature beat him? The darkness was his and his alone. He stared down at the village, he could still see Sonic down there. He wanted that vampire, he wanted to rule him. With eyes glowing red and an evil smirk on the face, he headed for the village.

Sonic was struggling and in a great deal of pain. The vampire had completely taken over, the hunger was unbearable. Yet somehow, he was still in there. He hadn't blacked out and now was in living hell. The vampire within him had been trying to use his body to kill, but Sonic had fought back. But his body was changing. Transforming. He was getting taller, claws were growing out of his hands, but his back, it felt like someone had taken an axe to either side of his spin at the shoulder. The pain was extricating, and it nearly knocked him out. It could barely walk with it.

Then something came out of the darkness that knocked him flying. He landed hard on the ground several metres way. Strong, fast, dark and black, and with a scent that was unmistakable.

Shadow.

Sonic was extremely glad to see him, and tried to call out but failed. But when he saw Shadow's face, he changed his mind. He had a look on his face that Sonic had never seen before. One of absolute pure evil. Shadow was not going to help, in fact, Sonic had no idea what the black hedgehog would do to him. He was extremely frightened and wanted to get out of there, but the vampire within him had other ideas and it had the control.

They were facing each other off, in the now deserted village. The locals had fled to the woods. For a few seconds the two hedgehogs looked at each other, and then the two powerhouses clashed. The resulting fight was hard, fast and brutal. Punches were thrown and super-speed was used as the main weapon. Sonic had been sent flying by Shadow, who quickly turned and charged. What Shadow lost in speed against the vampire, he made up in weight, and wasn't afraid to use it. Sonic had the potential to be stronger then Shadow but the black hedgehog knew he hadn't master it yet. The incident before was a fluke.

Shadow span around Sonic, dodging his every move. The vampire was routed to the spot, throw punch ofter punch, grasping as best he could. Shadow was now seriously annoying the vampire within Sonic, who would stop at nothing to sink his fangs into that black hedgehog.

Shadow was delighted to see the blue vampire was about to completely loose it with him. Now he was vulnerable. Time to take him down.

Sonic went for the black hedgehog. Shadow just about dodged but wasn't quite fast enough. The newly formed claws on the tips of Sonic's fingers caught him on the arm, drawing blood. Shadow didn't notice as he span round and grabbed the vampire from behind, forcing him to his knees. He roared and Shadow struggled to keep a hold of him. There eyes met, both red and glowing. The vampire temporarily stopped fighting and Shadow, for a split second, relaxed a little.

Big mistake.

Sonic swung round so fast that Shadow didn't see him coming, and sunk his fangs into the black hedgehog's neck. He hadn't bit anyone since the deer, but this was different. Very different. The vampire within him tightened its grip on Shadow and began to drink. The combination of the Chaos darkness and the blood, Sonic felt so much better. Not just better, he was on top of the world. Shadow's blood was like liquid gold, and Sonic wanted more of it, a lot more.

Shadow had been caught off guard and felt Sonic's fangs in his neck. His temper flared. He was about to fight him off, when he realised Sonic's bite didn't cause him any pain. It was pleasurable, a deep, intense pleasure, he had never felt before. He relaxed so much that the Chaos darkness within him nearly took control of him. When he realised, he snapped out of it, but he couldn't fight Sonic off, he didn't want to. The more blood Sonic drunk, the more pleasure Shadow felt but weirdly his strength didn't diminish. He didn't feel like he was dying. It seems that Shadow's body was able to replace the blood as fast as Sonic was drinking it. However, Shadow was struggling to keep control. That when he realised that now was not the time or place for this. He put his hand into his quills and pulled out a Chaos Emerald. He always had one on him. Grabbing Sonic and with all the strength he had left, he Chaos Controlled them both to the Ark, where he could better control the situation. They landed on the main observatory room of the space station, an empty room, with metallic walls, floor and ceiling, save for one wall completely made of glass, giving a perfect panoramic view of the planet below. The teleportation drained Shadow of a lot of energy, and both he and Sonic collapsed to the floor.

Sonic's mind was swimming, he didn't even know that he had been teleported to the Ark. He broke from Shadow when they hit the floor. The vampire within was satisfied but his body was changing fast. A sudden amount of pain surged through his body and he arched his back in reaction to it. He was entering the final stage of his transformation. Within minutes, his arms and legs lengthened, as did his fingers. The claws grew longer and sharper, curving round, two inches in length. His tail was to lengthening. His eyes became large and turned blood red, darkening and becoming more acute to the night. His fangs painfully grew longer and stronger, two inches long. His bottom canines also become longer, half an inch to so, not strong enough to pierce the skin, but more to hold the victim in place.

Shadow had gotten to his feet after being released with his hand on his neck. Weirdly, he didn't feel any worse then before he was bitten despite loosing about eight pints of blood. Also the bite on his neck was healing surprising quickly and within seconds, it had completely disappeared. Shadow was wondering what was going on with him. What DNA had Gerald Robotnik used to create him? Shadow was beginning to wonder. Shadow's train of thought was broken when Sonic screamed in pain. He was now on his and knees, his back arched, with something large growing out of each shoulder. Shadow backed off in horror.

Sonic extremely painfully felt the growths coming out of his shoulders, he groaned in agony as large spines pierced the skin and shot towards the ceiling. These spines had sheets of skin between them. He didn't care what they were, he just wanted the pain to stop. He also had another problem. He was loosing his Chaos light. His mind, the vampire and the Chaos darkness were all merging together and he quickly realised that he was going to change forever. They were swallowing up his Chaos light, until it would finally be extinguished and never return. Sonic was still on is hands and knees when the growths out of his shoulders finally finished. The pain stopped and he collapsed on the floor. His mind was swimming and the darkness set in. Soon he was out cold.

Shadow stared at Sonic. He could feel the Chaos darkness completely taking over as he lay unconscious on the floor. He evilly smirked at him. He knew exactly what Sonic now was, he was a fully fledged vampire. He had done what he was asked, he had tracked Sonic down and stopped him from hurting anyone. As for the cure, that can wait. Time to have some fun with him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four – Reborn**

Eyes closed and for the first time in years, finally at peace, Sonic lay in his comfy, clean bed dreaming the night away. Hang on! Sonic opened his eyes and sat up with a start. He looked around. He was indeed lying in a large bed, with spotlessly clean sheets. The walls, ceiling and floors were all made a sheets of metal, revetted together. The room was dimly light but that was no problem for Sonic, he could see perfectly well.

'Odd, a room made of metal.' He thought, but then his memories can flooding back and he remembered there was only one place, he knew of, which had architecture like this, the Ark.

"Shadow!" Sonic gasped aloud. His voice was extremely cracked. Then he remembered what happen the night before. He put a hand round the back of his neck and felt something spiky sticking out of his shoulder. He frowned. He remembered his mind, the vampire and the Chaos darkness merging together, and yet he felt no different now then he did before the whole incident started. Sonic looked deep inside of himself. There was no Chaos light there, at all. Chaos dark, sure, he was flooded with it, but the Chaos light was gone. For some reason, he wasn't bothered by this. He felt the same, he was still the same guy, should it matter if he was a creature of light or dark. Then he felt it, a presence in the room he hadn't noticed before.

Shadow.

He melded so perfectly into the shadows, that Sonic hadn't even seen him. He had been waiting for him to wake up.

Sonic had been out cold for several days, time enough for Shadow to do some research. The Ark had a vast electronic archive, all of Gerald Robotnik's notes were there as illegal access to Eggman's database. Shadow wanted to control Sonic, as he didn't like the idea of having another powerful Chaos dark creature to rival him. Chaos dark was his territory and he wanted to keep it that way. It was only a matter of time before the vampire overpowered him and took that territory from himself. He didn't like that one bit. After hours of trawling through the archives, he found a solution, but it was extreme. There was a way of controlling Sonic, but it involved mating and bonding with him first. Shadow didn't like the sound of that. He wasn't interested like that. Sonic was male, he didn't swing that way.

'Technically.' Shadow thought. 'That wasn't true.' He'd try anything at least once. He had done in the past mainly in Central City. Shadow realised this wasn't going to be easy, he had heard of bonding between sapients before. It mainly happen between married couples, when they consummated their marriage. Their love for each other would cause them to bond, becoming mates for life. It was a biological process that prevented sapients from cheating on each other. It was extremely effective. If Shadow did this, he would be committing the rest of eternity for Sonic. But was the reward worth it? If Shadow bonded with him, he could used Chaos Dark Sorcery to control him. Chaos Sorcery had existed once, both it dark and light forms. It was the magic that was used to create the Chaos Emeralds, but all knowledge of the art had disappeared. The magic still remained but no one had the knowledge to wield it.

Gerald Robotnik had dug up some titbits of information about Chaos Dark Sorcery involving mind control. He'd guessed Gerald had tried to use them on him. There was nothing complete except for one spell. It only worked on another Chaos dark creature and only after you have bonded with them. Shadow had no idea if it would succeed and as he stood there looking at Sonic from the shadows, he was wondering of it was worth the risk. Did he really want to control Sonic that desperately? He just didn't know, maybe time will tell. Maybe there were other methods. Sonic was a brand new fully fledged vampire, primed for manipulation. Shadow smirked at the thought.

Through new eyes and a new heart, Sonic saw that Shadow was beautiful. He was in the shadows, his crimson red eyes glinting in the darkness, his large sleek black body relaxed against the wall, his black quills with their magnificent red stripes, flowing out behind him. His white chest fur back against his chest, spotlessly clean as always and Sonic found himself falling in love all over again.

"Your awake!" he exclaimed, in his usual ice cold voice, no more then a whisper. That voice. It struck a serious cord with Sonic. His Chaos darkness went mad, he wanted that hedgehog very badly now.

"What happened to me? Why don't I feel any different?" Sonic replied, barely whispering.

Shadow smirked and moved towards him. He could see he was making the vampire twitchy and uncomfortable.

"Chaos darkness doesn't change who you are..." Shadow slithered over to the bed and sat. Sonic gulped. He continued. "It simply dictates whether you care or not."

Sonic frowned, he didn't really understand.

"Oh..." Shadow smirked. "You will." He spoke in a slow cold voice. He held out this wrist. "You must be hungry, eat!"

Sonic backed away from him very quickly.

"No." Sonic pleaded. "I don't want to hurt you!"

Shadow's smirk broadened. Remembering what happened the previous night. "Trust me, you won't." He smirked.

Sonic didn't believe him. He pulled himself out of bed but collapsed in a big heap on the floor. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"I told you..." He spat. "You need to eat!"

"No!" Sonic said stubbornly again. Shadow sighed, stood up and walked to door.

"Fine!" he snarled. "When you change your mind, come and find me!". The vampire was not doing as he wanted.

'Give him time' Shadow thought. 'He will.' And with that he left. Sonic was alone.

He had no energy. He could barely get to his feet. Sonic cowered on the floor, he could feel a rumble from inside him. His hunger was beginning to build. Shadow was right. Sonic had to feed, and being a fully grown vampire. Blood was the only option for him now, and being on the Ark, the black hedgehog was his only source.

The Ark. Sonic hated the space station, he always got lost. It was the size of a city and world's most intricate labyrinth. Every single corridor and room looking the identical to the other. There was very little food or water on board. Then again, it is perfectly setup for an immortal hedgehog who doesn't need to eat or drink. It was also spotlessly clean and dust free, every inch of it. Shadow took extreme pride in his home, though he was surprised he had brought him here. The last time Sonic was here, was just after he met the black hedgehog when he was tricked by Gerald Robotnik into destroying to world. 'Whoa' Sonic thought, 'That was a long ago.' He had never invited back to the Ark since. So why now? Sonic knew Shadow extremely well. It must something to do with his transformation. Sonic was a Chaos dark creature now and Shadow may not like the competition. Try and control him in some way.

'Maybe.' the blue vampire thought. 'We will see what happens.' This didn't seem to bother Sonic too much. He would do anything for that black hedgehog, he loved him that much.

Sonic just about managed to get to his feet. The hunger really getting to him now, it was now more intense and more difficult to shake off. His vampire instincts were going mad. He had a feeling where Shadow might be, the main Control Room. Sat at the console that controls the whole space station, watching him no doubt. But where that room was in relation to where he was now. Sonic had no idea. Sonic decided to head to the door and see where it took him. He raced down the corridor, and then another, and another, each as identical as the next. He looked in several rooms, all were empty. Sonic frustration was getting to him and he was now getting desperate. The hunger was now getting so bad it could barely think. But he didn't want his search for Shadow to turn into a hunt. He turned down another corridor and was surprised as it opened out into a large cavernous like hall, at first floor balcony level. It was empty. It looked as though it was used to store large equipment at some point.

His sensitive vampire nose caught a whiff of Shadow's scent in the distance, through a corridor at ground level, on the other end of the hall. Sonic intended to run round the edge of the balcony, but every instinct in his body told him to jump. He was unable to resist the temptation. Fuelled by hunger, running on automatic, he climbed onto the rail and jumped. He had no idea why. He couldn't resist. To his amazement, he took to the air, as bat-like wings open out at his shoulders.

'What the?' he thought, as he looked left and right. He tried to flap them but he didn't have the strength. He glided to the ground and landed hard, collapsing. He was passing in and out of consciousness.

Shadow was indeed in the Control Room of the Ark, at the console, lounging back in his favourite chair, watching Sonic's very move. He had rolled his eyes again, Sonic was being very stubborn. Shadow was unsurprised at that. Sonic always was and always will be stubborn, potential more so now that he was of Chaos dark now. He had seen Sonic enter, what Shadow called the Great Hal. He watched with keen interest, as Sonic took flight for the first time, then him crash land. He sighed.

'Idiot!' he thought as he ran to the Great Hall. Sonic was in a heap on the ground. He walked towards him and rolled him over, Sonic eyes were glowing red, the hunger had taken over. Shadow looked at his hand and pushed his gloved up his fingers, revealing his wrist. He offered it to Sonic.

Sonic could smell the blood flowing inside Shadow's veins, and before he knew, he had grabbed the wrist, and sunk his large fangs into it. Shadow's blood was pure. The blue vampire desperately needed it. The black hedgehog didn't flinch when bitten.

Of course, Shadow didn't flinch. Being bitten by Sonic was intensely pleasurable for him. Though he would never admit it, he wanted to be bitten, it was that good. Shadow never felt anything like it as his eyes rolled up his head. It was several minutes before Sonic released him, having drank his fill. Shadow collapsed on the floor, panting slightly, watching the bite mark on his wrist heal before his eyes. He hadn't Sonic seen sat up next to him, staring at him.

"You alright?" Sonic asked, puzzled. The blood instantly calmed his vampire instincts and he had recovered extremely fast.

Shadow whipped round, looking somewhat put out. He quickly covered his wrist with his glove. He snarled in response.

"I told you, you needed to feed!" he snapped in defence. Sonic gave him a sideways look with an evil smirk.

"You like being bitten, don't you!" he leered the black hedgehog. Shadow snarled again at Sonic, this time being really defensive.

"And you need to learn to fly!" he growled as he got to his feet, and started walking towards the corridor he came from.

Sonic to his feet and ran after him. "Fly?" he questioned.

Shadow stopped and stared at him. The blue vampire was being an idiot again.

"Yes, Fly! What is the point of having wings if you don't know how to use them."

Sonic stopped at stared at the black hedgehog.

"I have wings!" He said in amazement, feeling his back with his hands. There was shape spines with leathery skin between them. They were similar to Rouge's, but larger in size and blue in colour to match his fur coat.

"Yes." Shadow smirked. Sonic ran after the black hedgehog.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked. Shadow stopped walking and turned to face him.

"Just returning a favour, you helped me once!" he admitted. Sonic laughed. He was a Chaos dark creature now and could see straight through Shadow's lies. Shadow looked annoyed. Sonic walked up to him and there were nose to nose. Sonic lip curled. The evil in him swelled.

"If I believed that, I'd believed anything!" Sonic hissed in a cold voice, Shadow growled. He was being confronted, and he didn't like that. Sonic looked deep into Shadow's eyes, he could see what the black hedgehog wanted.

"You want to control me, don't you!" He paused. "Whats the matter, don't want any competition!"

Shadow's eyes narrowed, his temper flared. He was busted, and he knew it. Sonic laughed.

"I can read you like a book, Shads!" He exclaimed. The black hedgehog looked unimpressed. He continued. "Hey, cool it. If you want to control me, go ahead, all you had to do was ask!" He was grinning inanely. He beginning to enjoy being dark.

That comment snapped Shadow out of his temper. He stared at the blue vampire who was now walking ahead of him.

"What?" he exclaimed.

"You heard me, Shadow!" Sonic turned around and faced him again. "I know you too well, I'd had a feeling you would do this, so I'm saying, go ahead." He couldn't say no to Shadow, he loved him too much.

This blow Shadow's mind, he was not expecting this. He had expected the blue vampire to fight back. Fiercely. Something was going on, and now the black hedgehog was determined to find out what. Shadow passed Sonic in the corridor and towards the Control Room. Sonic followed but as he entered the room, something on the monitors caught his eye. Something that took both their minds off their argument. He ran towards the screens.

"Hey, according to this, Eggman hasn't been seen since the day I was struck by the lightning!"

Shadow stared at Sonic. This was incredible unusual. Eggman is always proclaiming to the media after every fight about how he nearly took down the famous and annoying Blue Blur. This time there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Shadow went to the console, sat in the chair and began to search. He had been so concentrated on Sonic over the last week, he hadn't notice the lack of Eggman's presence. He tried every video feed he knew of, in every single one of Eggman's bases.

Nothing.

Now that was really unusual. Eggman could always be seen lounging in one of his bases. Especially after a fight, trying to heal his pride.

Nothing.

The human was indeed missing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five – Vanished**

Sonic needed to learn to fly, quite urgently now. Eggman was missing, and they had to get to the bottom of it and quickly. If Eggman has gone underground, he could raise more dangerous then ever, with better bases and robots and could cost lives. They needed to find him and fast. That, and the fact Shadow hated loosing track of his pet human. Sonic laughed at this. It was one of many reasons why he loved Shadow.

As Shadow spent several hours in the Control Room using the Ark's extensive surveillance technology to search the planet for Eggman, Sonic got to know his new wings. He'd been cleaning them, closely examining them, stretching them, feeling how they moved, how they worked. Shadow didn't really have much advice on flying, just to let his instincts guide him. He said they would know what to do. Sonic wasn't to sure, but he had to try. He was back in the 'Great Hall' of the Ark, the large cavernous storage room of the space station. He stood on the balcony, determined to fly to the other end of the room. This wasn't the best of situation to learn to fly in. There was no wind. The air was stale, stagnant and completely motionless. But this time he had energy. He had just fed from Shadow and was waring to go.

He climbed on the balcony and opened his wings. He took a deep breathe. He remembered the last time he jumped off here. The painful crash was still fresh in his mind. He relaxed his mind, and tried to let his instincts take over. They were pretty edger to get flying. Hoping for better luck this time, he jumped. He flapped his wings like mad, but still sunk to the ground. He landed hard, but somehow managed to land on his feet.

All of a sudden, Shadow's voice rang out across the room, through the speaker system.

"Better!" He hollowed. Sonic raised his eyebrow.

"Are you watching me?" He spoke to the empty room. Silence answered until Shadow voice rang out through again. It was with such a strong, cold, dark tone with a sense of urgency in it, that Sonic had no choice but to obey.

"Again!"

Sonic was rather put out.

"Ok, ok, I'm going, i'm going!" He headed towards the stairs that lead to the balcony to try again.

Shadow was smirking in the Control Room, had indeed be watching Sonic, but only passively. The search for Eggman was seriously frustrated him. Hours of looking had yielded nothing. Eggman was completely gone, and Shadow had gotten somewhat bored. He continued to watch Sonic on the monitor. The vampire looked somewhat clumsy jumping off the balcony, but with every attempt was was getting better. But the tenth attempt, he nearly managed to fly to the opposite side. He missed it by a matter of inches. This really frustrated Sonic.

Shadow sighed, neither of them was getting anywhere here, they needed to go down to the planet. He got up and joined Sonic in the Great Hall. The black hedgehog saw that Sonic had climbed the stairs again for one more attempt. He stood to one side so he couldn't be seen. The vampire took to the air, this time he had better control. He gently flapped his wings and made it to the opposite balcony. But his confidence broke an inch from it and fell. He managed to grab the balcony rail with his hands and was left dangling. He climbed onto the balcony, feeling triumphant, but then rather embarrassed, as he spotted Shadow in the room. Shadow noticed, but didn't mention it, there were more urgent matters.

"We need to go down to the planet!" he said, coldly.

Sonic jumped down from the balcony, landing perfectly.

"No luck with the search then?" He asked. Shadow shook his head. "So," Sonic continued. "Where do we go?"

Shadow gave Sonic a stern look, thinking it was obvious.

"Back to where Eggman was last seen."

That meant going back to the ruined base very close to Tails' House. Sonic was almost certain his old friends would be there. If Eggman was indeed missing, they would be searching for him too. He wasn't ready to see them just yet, not looking like this. He remembered them, but he didn't really care for them anymore. He wanted more control of the situation before seeing them again. Shadow saw Sonic's concern in his eyes.

"Can you hide it?" Shadow asked. Sonic look confused. "The transformation. Can you hide it? Vampires have been walking among sapients for thousands of years before you. You should be able to hide it."

Sonic smirked. Chaos darkness swelled up inside him. That was a brilliant idea. Hide the true extent of what he was from them. That would give him back the control. Sonic's eyes glowed red. Shadow watched him closely, he relished seeing Sonic like this, as dark as him, and yet not a threat.

Sonic closed his eyes and tried to relax.

'I need to look more sapient.' He thought. He continued to relax, his vampire instincts shrank, and then it happened. His fangs began to shrink, as did his claws on his fingers. His wings pulled themselves snuggly into his back and somehow disappeared from view. They were still there. Sonic could feel them, but they couldn't seen by anyone. This change was only temporary. It felt great, there was no pain. Sonic noticed that his emotions controlled this change, if he remained calm, he could potentially stay like this forever. After a few minutes, Sonic opened his eyes to find Shadow evilly smirking at him, extremely pleased with what he was seeing.

"What is it?" Sonic asked. His smirk broadened. He leant over to Sonic and gave a dark hiss in his ear.

"Your eyes are green!"

They had been red since his transformation. Evil swelled up again inside Sonic. This was beautiful. Apart from being a few inches taller, darker in fur coat colour (the blue was now so dark, it was borderline black) and with a stunning curved figure that looked both slender and strong, he looked completely normal. He cared even less about his so-called friends now as he took Shadow's hand to Chaos Control back to planet. He decided he was going to make their lives hell. They had abandoned him back at that base, and as for Amy, he seriously wanted to sink his fangs into her, he hated her that much.

They landed in the middle of the ruined base, in broad daylight. Sonic hissed, putting his hands over his eyes. Every instinct told him to run. Daylight destroys vampires. Shadow grabbed him.

"Hey!" he snapped. "Get control, you idiot. Your immortal, your immune to daylight!"

Shadow's words rang in Sonic's ears, the black hedgehog was right and the vampire stopped panicking. He opened his eyes and looked straight at Shadow. They were watering quite badly. Shadow stood there quietly, calmly, holding him, allowing for Sonic's eyes to adjust to the light. They were not as good in daylight was they were at night, and were fuzzy for quite some time. Sonic liked Shadow's calmness, he found it soothing and before long, he could see. Shadow nodded in approval and let him go. He began walking through the ruined base. Sonic stood there and sighed, rubbing his eyes. As he followed Shadow, looking around, he had the weirdest of feeling's.

The last time he was here, he was a completely different person. It was only a week ago and yet it felt like a lifetime. He was seeing the world through new eyes. Everything around him looked familiar, but his attitude towards it has completely changed. Shadow was right, he just didn't care anymore. Chaos darkness really does promote selfishness, and Sonic was loving it. He had been too selfless for far too long. Time to think of himself for a change, and Shadow. Well, that was different. As he watched the black hedgehog ahead, his love for him growing stronger by the second.

Sonic stopped and stared at a patch of earth on the ground. It was where he was struck and fell. The beginning of everything. He was frightened by it. Shadow appeared by his side, and indicated to move on. Sonic agreed, still feeling numb. They walked through the wreckage. Parts of windows, walls, ceilings and robots were scattered everywhere. It was eerily quiet, to quiet for Shadow's liking. Eggman never did anything quietly. He was too full of himself for that. The rubble went on for as far as the eye could see.

'Must have been a decent explosion!' Sonic thought. Pity he hadn't seen it. This annoyed him. That was the best part of any attacked, watching the final explosion. But then he realised that this was the first time he'd be back to the scene of the crime, after a battle. Before now, he had never needed to. It felt odd. They continued walking until they found that the main headquarters of the base. It was still mostly standing, minus the windows, the roof and a few walls. They looked each other, if they were to find any clues as to Eggman's location, it was in there.

It didn't look safe, but that didn't bother them, both of them immortal. They would just regenerate off any injuries. They climbed into the building through a gap in the wall. It was pitch dark in there with a strong smell of engine oil. No problem for a pair of night owls. Shadow went first. Sonic let him. He seemed to know what he was looking for. Sonic had no idea. Eggman wasn't here and that was what he was really interested in.

They climbed through the wreckage of the building, through walls and over doors. Occasionally daylight would shine through a gap in the ceiling was they moved from room to room, until Shadow finally found what he was looking for. The Control Room for the whole base, a vast computer suite with monitors and surveillance, similar in setup to the Ark. To Shadow's surprise, it was still online, but password protected. Shadow smirked, Eggman's passwords were not difficult to break, if you knew him well. Apparently, the others had had real trouble with them. The was a crack in the ceiling, that let daylight through and lit up the entire console.

Sonic looked at Shadow.

"Can you get in?" he asked. Shadow snorted, and gave him a clear look that simply said 'stupid question!'. Sonic put his hands up and backed off, allowing Shadow to sit at the console.

Shadow thought as he sat at the console. What could the password be? He tried several different attempts.

Access Denied.

'Ok' Shadow thought. 'Not that.' He had tried various passwords related to robotics and world domination. 'Mm, let try something a little closer to home.'

ROBOTNIK

Access Denied.

GERALD

Access Denied.

MARIA

Access Denied.

Shadow was getting frustrated, Sonic was beginning to smirk. He ignored him.

He looked around the room for inspiration. Nothing was forthcoming until his eyes rested in Sonic.

Random idea. He typed.

VAMPIRE

Access Granted!

"Wait!" Sonic exclaimed. "He knew!" Shadow sighed.

"Apparently so." he said coldly.

"How?" Sonic questioned. Shadow looked at him.

"Hey, I didn't tell him!" the vampire defended. "Anyway." He added. "Anything useful in there?"

Shadow was looking intently. The computer was in a bad way, most of the data had be corrupted from the explosion, with storage memory heavily damaged. Most of the working files were about the running of the base. Security and general maintenance. Nothing of interest. But he dug deep into the operating system anyway. Deep in the bowels of the machine. He found a single directory. There was no other indication of where Eggman could be. It immediately caught Shadow's attention as it was encrypted and password protected. He knew Eggman didn't do that unless he was hiding something. But it was confusing. It was simply marked 'ghost'.

"Ghost? What does that mean?" Sonic exclaimed, looking over Shadow's shoulder.

Shadow stared at the directory. He tried a couple of attempts to break the password without success. For the first time in his life, he had no idea. He prided himself at knowing everything about Eggman, but this floored him.

There was a sudden noise that made them both jump. Someone was there and was now making a run for it. Shadow shot a look at Sonic that made him smirk evilly. He didn't speak, he didn't need to. It was a very clear 'after them.' Shadow was going to stay behind and transfer the directory to the Ark. Sonic whirled around to the direction the intruder ran, he was in the mood for a hunt.

Sonic was fast before he turned, but now he was in a completely different league. He was able to move so fast that if you blinked you'd miss him, like he was teleporting about the room. The intruder didn't stand a chance and he knew it. He evilly relished the thought of stretching his legs. Even though he doubted he could fly as fast was he could run. To his surprise, his wings didn't get in the way as he super-spinned out of the building and sped after his quarry. He had almost forgotten they were there.

With seconds, Sonic was on top of his victim and easily forced the intruder to the ground. He was growling as he turned the intruder to face him, a hand on his neck. He was crying and squealing.

"Please don't hurt me!" He exclaimed. It was more his voice then his face that snapped Sonic out of his vampiric rage.

"Tails!" He exclaimed. What was the fox doing here? It wasn't exactly safe, plus the he was too young to out alone.

"Let him go!" said a string voice from behind him. He recognised it. Knuckles. When he stood up with the fox in his hands, he realised he was surrounded. Rouge, Big the Cat, Amy, even Team Chaotix were there, all looking at him as if he was the enemy. Cutting his losses, Sonic let the fox go. Tails ran to hide behind Knuckles.

"They've cracked Eggman's database!" He said trembling. Knuckles smiled.

"I knew Shadow could do it. We tried and failed to get in. When we saw you arrive, we'd thought you'd do our work for us." Sonic folded his arms.

"Really." he said coldly. Then he smirked. "We didn't find anything."

"Lair!" Tails screamed. Ok, now that fox was really beginning to peeve Sonic off, and his vampiric temper began to flare. He growled at him again.

"Don't even think about it!" Knuckles growled in return, defending Tails. Sonic laughed.

"Or you'll do what?" He grinned. "Fight me?"

'Oh, go on!' Sonic thought. 'Give me an excuse to kick your butt.' he sniggered. He could feel Knuckles' fear.

"No." He said, his voice cracking. Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Its obvious that your here for the same reason as we are, Eggman's disappearance. We were hoping it would lead to a cure for Jet."

Jet. Sonic had completely and utterly forgotten about him. Then everything came fooding back. Sonic's lip curled.

"How is he?" he mocked, suspecting the answer.

Knuckles' eyes narrowed. "He's turned. We have had to cage him, as he keeps trying to kill everybody!"

Sonic sniggered. A wide grin of his face.

"I know the feeling!" he hissed. They all backed away slightly. He was scaring them and he was enjoying it.

"Sonic, please!" Someone pleaded from behind him. He turned, it was Amy. Sonic's eyes lit up with evil delight at the sight of her. He growled at her, he wanted to bite her. His eyes narrowed, but then someone stood between them.

"Enough!" He exclaimed. "Sonic!" he said calmly, "Don't you remember us?"

It was Vector. The large crocodile stood strong yet gentle, powerful yet wise.

Of all the people there, Vector was the only person Sonic still had any respect for. He was a rebel like Sonic, and they had shared a lot in the past. A love of music, pranks, racing. But it was mainly in music, their friendship really developed. Vector had never done anything against him, so at least he owed the crocodile an explanation. Sonic sighed.

"It's not that I don't remember." He explained. "Because I do. Everything. But I just don't care anymore. Things have changed. Thats what Chaos darkness does to you. It removes all feelings for others and turns you in a selfishness..." Sonic swore. They got the idea. "And yes." He added. "I'm am enjoying it. I have done enough for you in the past, time for some me time." Vector stared.

"Then what have got against Amy?"

Sonic smirked again, peering at her around Vector.

"That..." Sonic swore again. She cried. "Made my life a nightmare. Wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, constantly clinging, constantly whining. Wouldn't leave me alone even though my heart had always belonged to someone else." He glared at her, but Vector stood his ground, looking unimpressed. Sonic finally backed off.

"Oh, ok, fine." He spat. "I'll let her live today. But if I catch her, I will kill her." There was a long silence. Before his transformation, Sonic wouldn't have hurt a fly, let alone kill. Had he really changed that much?

"Look." Rouge cut across. "We all came here for the same reason, can we work together on this?"

They worriedly looked at each other. Sonic laughed, it was obvious that they didn't trust him anymore. Technically, he didn't trust them either. He stared at her, she was serious.

Sonic smirked. "That's not my call!" he said matter-of-factly.

"It's mine!"

A dark, ice cold voice appeared out of nowhere, behind them.

Shadow.

He had successfully transferred the directory and had come looking for them. They all turned, Sonic smirked, Shadow's timing was perfect. He calmly walked towards them, strolled between Rouge and Knuckles and joined Sonic in the middle. The vampire couldn't take his eyes off him.

Rouge was very put out.

"Ok, Shadow, what did you do to him?" Indicating towards Sonic. It was obvious that Shadow had great respect for her.

"Nothing!" He said coldly. Sonic cut in.

"Actually, thats true!" He piped up. Rouge gave Sonic a sideways look, Shadow ignored him.

"Well, you must done something. Thats not the Sonic I remember!" Rouge added.

Everyone looked at Shadow, he smirked. In a ice cold voice he muttered.

"I feed him!" Everybody gasped. Sonic nodded.

Shadow glared at him, giving him a look at clearly said 'Shut Up!'. Sonic acknowledged him and slipped behind Shadow, smirking.

"Why?" Rouge gasped.

Shadow smirked widened. He hissed at her.

"Would you rather he bite you!"

Rouge gulped. Sonic's lip curled as he glared at her. Rouge swallowed her nerves, she had worked with Shadow many times, he worked better with direct questions.

"What did you find in Eggman's database?" She asked bluntly.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. But Shadow answered. Despite everything, he still trusted her.

"A directory I couldn't open..." He paused. "It was marked 'ghost'. I have transferred it to the Ark for further analysis."

They all looked at each other. Nobody understood what that mean.

Except Tails.

"Ghost." He puzzled. "I've never heard of that." He was really frustrated. He piped up. He had more confidence now that Shadow was there. "Can you transfer the file from the Ark to my Workshop? I have a few ideas but I need to see the directory."

Shadow, to Sonic's surprised, agreed. Sonic turned to him to enquire but Shadow silenced him. He knew exactly what he was doing. If he could get that that fox to do the leg work for him, it would save him a lot of hassle. He turned to Sonic.

"Go with them!" He growled.

"What!" complained Sonic. "They hate me!" Indicating the other sapients. They weren't too happy about it either. Shadow gave him a look that coldly said, 'Not my problem.' and promptly vanished, Chaos Controlling to the Ark. This left the vampire in a fowl mood. He was very put out. Everyone was looking at him.

"Why do you do that?" Rouge blurted out, all of a sudden. Sonic swung round. "What?" He asked.

"Why to let treat you like that? Why do as he asks?" Rouge asked strongly, standing her ground. Sonic raised an eyebrow. He understood why Shadow respected her. She'd got experience in dealing with creatures of Chaos darkness. She knew how to deal with them. The more direct the better. They don't like being messed around. He stared at her. She didn't flinch. Sonic was impressed. Enough to warrant an answer.

"Choice!" He said simply. "I like him!" Rouge look surprised, they all did. Sonic laughed. If they didn't understand, he wasn't going to tell them. He was now getting impatient. "Are we getting moving or not?" He was eager to get going.

"Hold it!" Knuckles demanded. "I'm not letting you out of my sight." Sonic growled back.

"Still don't trust me?"

No, Knuckles didn't trust Sonic anymore. For several reasons, one, Sonic had lied to him about who and what he was. Even if Sonic didn't really know himself, he could have confided in him. Knuckles had had in him and he felt betrayed, and two, Sonic was a fully fledged vampire now, a creature of Chaos dark. Knuckles had no idea of the true extent of his powers and abilities and didn't want to be caught off guard. Knuckles' silence answered Sonic question. He was still annoyed.

"Ok fine!" Sonic spat. "Don't trust me then. But do you trust Shadow? I would never go against his wishes. He's asked me to go with you, so I will go. I know he wants you guys unharmed." Sonic smirked. "Sadly." He added on the end. Knuckles growled at him. He was mocking them and thoroughly enjoying it.

That joy however, wore very thin when they finally got moving as they frog-marched him to Tails' House. It was only a few miles but it seemed to take forever, and Sonic complained the entire way. He teased them, he mocked them, he was downright cruel to them. He didn't care. By the time they arrived, nearly everyone was in tears and Knuckles was fuming. Sonic was in a fowl mood, but that was mainly fuelled by hunger. Knuckles stood at the door. He looked at Sonic, looking disappointed at him

"You've changed!" He exclaimed.

Sonic laughed and pointed at himself. "Vampire!" as if to say, of course he had. Knuckles expected nothing less but he growled at him.

"No, your a monster!" He spat. Before Sonic could say anything, Knuckles slammed the door of Tails' House in his face. Leaving him outside alone. As far was Knuckles was concerned, he was close enough, and not welcome inside. Then he tried to comfort the others as Tails tried to get to work on the directory Shadow had just sent him.

Sonic peered at them through the window, he didn't take the rejection likely. He was extremely angry at them. The sun was going down and he was now extremely hungry. The vampire instincts were now running wild. He could hear the workings of a nearby village. Sonic smirked.

Time to go for a hunt.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six – Consequences**

Shadow watched Sonic leave. He had Chaos Controlled back to the planet a few hundred metres from Tails' House. He smirked. He knew exactly where the vampire was going. Sonic hadn't eaten all day. He must be extremely hungry by now. Shadow let him go. That vampire may have chosen to obey him, but he wasn't his babysitter. If he choose to go and kill for his food, and so be it. Shadow only fed Sonic when it was convenient for him. Shadow turned towards the house, his suspicions was correct. Sonic's so-called friends had rejected him. Thats why he insisted on Sonic staying with them. To test a theory. Now was the time to see just how far that vampire would go to quench his thirst. Shadow wanted to find out what exactly he was dealing with. An examination on the Ark didn't reveal much. Though, Shadow had to admit, he was getting rather fond of this new Sonic. He was far more vulgar and cruel now, which he rather liked and as Shadow was hoping, a killer.

Shadow was a professional assassin by trade. It was how he made his money. It paid well, extremely well. His main client was the Mobian Authorities who were constantly asking him to delete people who opposed them. If Shadow was going to bond with someone, do the deed, then they had to be like him. A killer. Now was the time to test Sonic.

The vampire was in his element. He was running towards the village, down a long steep hill. His instincts were going mad. Why was he running? They were telling him to go skyward.

'Why not!' He thought, and opened his wings. They raised from his back before opening, and he felt the vampire within him come through. As did the claws, the fangs and the long tail. With his eyes glowing red, Sonic opened his wings to their fullest extent and flapped them. A sudden gust of wind blow under them and he lifted off the ground. It was liberating. All thought of food was put to one side as Sonic embraced the joy of taking flight properly for the first time. He soared higher and higher. He steered left then right. Sonic looked at his wings. They were indeed bigger then Rouge's. But Rouge's wings were only good for gliding and flying short distances, Sonic felt like he could fly around the world on these. There were indeed powerful, but his power of super-speed were not in them, that was still in his feet. He could potentially fly fast, but that was going to take some skill and practice.

The span round on his wings, this was amazing. The soared above the village and saw the people going about their business. People. His hunger was back, and with a serious vengeance. Sonic's concentration was now are a sapient below him. A skunk, young, a boy not much older then Tails. His instincts took over the flying. Shadow was right, they did know what to do.

Sonic dived for the boy, it was pitch dark, he didn't see him coming. He grabbed with his claws. He screamed but Sonic didn't care. Before he could stop himself, his strong wings had powered him back into the sky. He had sunk his fangs into the skunk's neck. Sonic tasted the blood, it was sweet and delicious, but somewhat lame. It wasn't very filling. It didn't quench his thirst, like Shadow's blood did. Within minutes Sonic had drained the boy, and let him go. He fell to the ground, limp. People were screaming, people were running. Sonic's hunger for blood, was even worse then ever now. He dived for another victim but missed. He wasn't that fast on his wings, he'd have better luck on the ground.

He landed with a thump, somehow on his feet, and saw the victim running in the distance. Sonic smirked. Within seconds he was on them. Definitely better luck on the ground. Super-speed plus a killer appetite. It made for a lethal combination. He drained the rabbit, he just caught. Them ran for another victim, then another and another. Against him they didn't stand a chance. But Sonic's thirst would not be quenched, despite everything he tried. Screams echoed in the night. He ran for another sapient, a wolf, then other, a bear. Things were getting completely out of hand.

Shadow has been watching from the nearby hill. He was initially loving it but when the killing turned into carnage, and he had seen enough. Sonic has passed his test, maybe a little so well.

Sonic felt something scratch his shoulder, a bullet had just grazed him. Someone was shooting at him. He rounded on them. The large tiger stood his ground, holding a double-barrelled shotgun. He fired at Sonic again. He easily dodged. The other sapients were standing up to him too. Completely surrounded, he took to the air. He had a better chance of taking them down from up here. He was being shot at again. He dodged. He laughed.

"Bullets can't harm me!" he hollowed, smirking.

"No!" said a cold voice, so quiet it could barely be heard. "But this can!"

Something hit Sonic square in the back. Sharp, fast and extremely bright. It was like he was being struck by lightning again. It was excruciatingly painful. His wings collapsed with the pain and he plummeted to the ground. Landing painfully hard. The sapients on the ground scattered. Sonic felt a hand on his neck, holding him down, a pair of crimson red eyes looking at him.

Shadow.

Sonic swore. Chaos Spear. Ouch! It had been several years since he'd be hit with one of those. He had forgotten just how painful they were. He grabbed Shadow's hand on his throat. He stared into those red eyes, growling at him. This was not his business. Apparently it was, as Shadow clenched his free hand into a fist. He punched Sonic across the cheek and nose. Hard. Hard enough to knock him out, cold.

Sonic woke with a throbbing headache. His eyes closed, He felt the it thump. He sighed. As he did, he felt his hands were above his head, restrained. He open his eyes and looked around. He was chained to a wall, in a room he didn't recognise. It was largely empty except for around the walls. There were further chains, and various weapons, shackles, and other restraints. It was dark, cold and gloomy, and not very welcoming. Sonic however, did notice something, all the walls, floor and ceiling was all made of panels of sheet metal, and realised where he was. The Ark. There were various blood stains on the floor, and Sonic knew that he wasn't the first victim to come in here.

"Shadow!" Sonic growled. He may have loved that black hedgehog, but this time he'd gone too far.

"What's the matter!" came a cold leer from behind him. "Do you not like my Torture Chamber?"

This made Sonic jump, he didn't even know Shadow was there. Since when did he have a torture chamber?

Sonic pulled against his chains, they buckled slightly. Shadow shifted. Sonic smirked. He got the impression that he didn't usually have victims as strong as him in his chamber. Several tugs and those chains would break.

Sonic rounded on Shadow.

"What you going to do to me?" He spat. He wasn't afraid of that black hedgehog. He was better at regenerating then him, anyway.

"That depends!" Shadow replied emotionlessly.

"On what?" Sonic demanded.

"On what the Authorities want with you. Your wanted for murder!" Shadow said slyly.

Sonic laughed.

"So are you!" He smirked. He knew Shadow was a professional assassin, he had seen him kill for money several times.

"Yes." Shadow hissed. "But unlike you, I have a licence to kill." He had never seen that hedgehog so cold.

Sonic was scared, for the first time since he turned. He gulped.

"Come on!" he defended. "It was only a couple of people, I was hungry!" Shadow stared at him, coldly.

"Twelve!"

Sonic's jaw dropped in silent horror. He had no memory of this. He remember killing the night before and failing to quench his hunger, but he had no idea it was that many people. Speaking of hunger, Sonic stomach started to growl again. He rounded on Shadow again.

"Since when do you work for the Mobian Authorities?" Shadow glared in disgust.

"I don't!" He spat. He paced the room towards Sonic. "They are my largest client and if I want to keep them off my back, I may do the occasional favour."

"Basically." Sonic mocked. "You do their dirty work for them!" Shadow stared at the vampire and then started pacing the room.

"Perhaps." he hissed emotionlessly. "But I get paid extremely well for it. How do you think I maintain this place." He smirked. "I'm probably worth more then all your friends put together!"

Sonic growled.

"THEIR NOT MY FRIENDS!" he shouted. He was still extremely angry at them for rejecting him.

Shadow's smirked broadened. He had brought Sonic to the Ark to get him away from village and get back some sort of control back. He was winding him up. He had taken Shadow's bull about the Authorities being on his tail. They had no idea about him. Shadow had ensured that, and now he had turned against his friends. Perfect. He had put him in the torture chamber to scare him. It has worked. Now was Shadow's only chance to sweet talk him onto his side, possibly even further.

"I can help you!" He hissed. Sonic snorted.

"How?" He asked, disbelieving.

"By joining with me." Shadow teased. Sonic gave him a sideways look. What was that black hedgehog up to? He continued. "Eggman's gone, your friends don't want you, you have nowhere else to go."

Sonic stared. That was true. He did have nowhere else to go. But Eggman being gone, he wasn't convinced. He couldn't shake the feeling that if Eggman had been defeated, it was way too easy. He was missing something, something major. But right now, He didn't care, as Shadow came over to him and whispered in his ear.

"Well?"

Sonic gulped again but this time for a different reason. He never had the black hedgehog come so close to him before, and got a large lungful of his scent. It was intoxicating. Sonic's love for him when through the roof. He immediately forgave him for any past discrepancies. Shadow moved even closer to him. Was he flirting with him? Sonic didn't know, he didn't care. He found him completely irresistible. Shadow put both hands above Sonic's head and undid his chains. The vampire fell info his arms. Shadow smirked at him. What was he up to? But right there and then, Sonic didn't care, and was somewhat thrilled by the uncertainty.

Before Sonic could stop himself, He kissed Shadow. The black hedgehog didn't back off. A long drawn-out passionate kiss. Sonic's mind was blown, he had no idea that Shadow was capable of such compassion. Sonic hearted raced and soon he was all over him.

But Shadow had a problem, the idea was to do the deed and keep control of himself. That wasn't happening. The vampire tasted to dam good. His instincts were taking over, because they knew what vampires could do. They were Hermaphrodites, they were born both male and female and could choose between them. They were the only species on Mobious, supernatural or otherwise that could do this. Even though Sonic choose to be male, Shadow knew he was capable of far more. His heart had taken over and was soon on top of Sonic on the floor of the torture chamber.

Neither of them remembered much about that night. Of the deep, raw, intense passion that happened between them. Shadow had Chaos Controlled them from the torture chamber to the bedroom at some point because that's where Sonic awoke the next morning, having no memory of the move.

He woke filled with complete happiness. His memory for the previous night a complete blur, but wow. Wow, wow, WOW. He had no idea Shadow was capable of such intimate compassion, and he vaguely remembered about half way though he had gotten so close to Shadow, that it was absolute perfection.

They had done the deed. They had mated. They had bonded.

Sonic was the happiest person in the world. To bond with Shadow was his dream. He would do anything for him. It was only then looking around the room that Sonic realised that he was alone. This left him both upset and concerned.

Shadow was in trouble, not physically, except for his neck killing him where Sonic had been biting him all night, but emotionally. He was sat in his console chair, in the Control Room, his head in his hands. He was trying to get his brain together. He had underestimated Sonic, completely underestimated him. He had often thought the blue vampire a pushover, especially before he turned, now he wasn't so sure. Only at the height of passion with Sonic did Shadow finally realise that the vampire loved him. Genuine, completely, and utterly and it explained everything.

Sonic loved him! Shadow just couldn't get his head around this. Nobody had ever loved him before, never, not even Maria. Or if they did, they always insisted that he change. That was never going to happen. But Sonic loved him. Him! Exactly as he was, no changing, no nothing. The Ultimate Lifeform. The hub of pure evil. Hang on! This shouldn't have happened, this wasn't the plan. The plan was to bond with him and use Chaos Dark Sorcery to control him.

But Shadow couldn't do it. He just couldn't cast that spell. Not on Sonic. Not to someone who loved him. Not on someone who was extremely submissive to his dominance, and all of it by choice. Today was the first day Shadow found out that he may have been evil, but he wasn't that evil. He wasn't Eggman. They were a few tears in his eyes, he was struggling to cope. He was slowly falling for the vampire in return.

Sonic had gone looking for Shadow, somewhat worried. He had a suspicion of where he might be.

Shadow didn't hear Sonic arrive at the door of the Control Room. The vampire looked concerned.

"You ok?" He asked. Shadow didn't answer. Sonic raced over to the console chair and knelt beside it. He lifted Shadow's head to look at him. The black hedgehog looked at those large, now green, forgiving eyes. He felt like he didn't deserve Sonic's love. Sonic smiled.

"Let me guess." He giggled. He could read Shadow like a book. "You wanted to get me into bed, then do something really, really, really, evil to me, and now you can't do it."

Shadow stared at him. How did he know?

"Ooooo...go on." Squealed Sonic excitedly, waging his tails beside Shadow's chair, he looked like a happy puppy. "Please tell me what at was." He was very excited at the possibility in being given a lesson in evil from the master.

Shadow continued to stare. How could this not bother him? Shadow put his hands up to calm the vampire.

"Wait!" gasped Shadow, his voice cracked, "You knew I was going to do this."

"Yep." Sonic squeaked.

"And you still went along with it." Shadow questioned.

"Yep." He squealed.

"How did you know I wouldn't go through with the plan?" Shadow leered.

Sonic sighed at the black hedgehog. "Two words. 'I didn't'. I just hoped you wouldn't." He was being very honest.

Shadow stared again. He didn't know.

"Then why put yourself though such anguish?"

Sonic went silent and bright red in response, turning away. Shadow now knew why.

"You love me, don't you?" Sonic looked back at him. "I felt it!" He continued. "Last night. I didn't think anyone in the world could love me."

"Why?" Sonic asked, puzzled, but answered his own question before Shadow could respond. "It's because your evil, isn't it. You believe that your not capable of it but I disagree. And..." He continued. "It's the reason why you can't go through your plan now."

Shadow stared at him, this vampire was getting more amazing by the second. Then Shadow folded his ears back and said rather embarrassingly.

"I didn't know you loved me." Sonic giggled.

"Of course you didn't. I hide it from everyone. I've loved you ever since the day I met you."

Sonic went red, and Shadow raised an eyebrow. That was a bit more honesty then he had intended. Shadow smirked. Sonic had been hiding this for years, the thought had cheered him up except for one question.

"Why me?" He added after a long silence.

"I like you." Sonic giggled again. Shadow glared at him as if to say 'Seriously?'

"Ok." He added. "Your strong, your powerful, and you don't take any bull from anyone. The complete opposite of me. As a vampire growing up, the last of his kind, insecure. I didn't know who or what he was. I was alone. Then I met you, and finally found someone like me. You were fast, you were immortal. You understood. I felt safe around you despite your evil shortcomings and after I found out more about you, I realised that you were a person worth fighting for."

A single tear fell down Shadow's face and he pulled the vampire towards him and embraced him. Sonic cuddled him back. Now he really couldn't go through with his plan. Sonic cared for him. Always had, always will do, despite the Chaos darkness.

"Thank you." he whispered to Sonic and they kissed again. Now the vampire was giving him a stern look.

"So." he added. "What was the the plan?" He asked again. Shadow looked down, he now felt extremely guilty.

"Shadow!" Sonic growled. It was Sonic's Chaos dark that was eager to find out Shadow plan. It was wanting to find out how far Shadow would go. He looked back up. He didn't like Sonic growling at him. He finally submitted.

"Oh, alright!"

Shadow sighed. He told the vampire everything. About Gerald Robotnik, Chaos Dark Sorcery and the spell that was found and how it would have controlled him. How it was dependent on them bonding first.

Sonic backed off from Shadow, he looked frightened. He was expecting an evil plan but nothing quite on this scale. He felt extremely used. Shadow could see it in his eyes. He now felt even more guilty.

"Look I'm sorry, and here is the spell if you want to see it." Shadow brought the spell up on the monitor.

Sonic stared at it. He knew that spell. He didn't know that spell to cast it but he knew of it. He had been studying Chaos Sorcery for years in an attempt to better use the Chaos Emeralds. There was little information about but what there was explained the aftereffects, rather then the spells themselves. He had read up on this spell and now looked extremely frightened.

"Do you know what that thing does?" he said pointing to the monitor.

Shadow smirked. "Control!" he said coldly.

"Not just control." Sonic spat coldly. "It completely controls." He paused. "It turns the victim into an empty shell. The mind is removed and destroyed, and is replaced with a direct link to the masters. All independent thought is completely gone, and the victim completely obeys the master for the all eternity."

Shadow went white, he had no knowledge of this. Sonic began to well up.

"The thing is." He added. "The difference between Chaos Light Sorcery and Chaos Dark Sorcery, is that the light magic can be reversed but the dark can't. Shadow, I have been studying this for years. You would have killed me."

Sonic was in complete disbelieve that his beloved would even think of doing this to him. He knew Shadow was evil, but this was in a completely different league. It was cold, completely heartless and cruel. Something Eggman would do. He was in tears. He backed away to the door and ran, leaving Shadow completely stunned.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven – Quadruple**

Shadow searched the Ark. Sonic had completely disappeared. He found the Chaos Emerald he kept on the space station missing. He only had two, the other he kept on his person, at all times. Sonic was no longer on the Ark. He must have returned to the planet. Sonic Chaos Control abilities were not that good, but good enough to get him from the Ark to Mobious. The one chance he had with Sonic and he'd blown it. But Shadow couldn't stop thinking about him. He had bonded with him, and now he desperately wanted to find him.

Sonic felt completely betrayed. He knew Shadow was evil, he was well aware of the risks in dealing with that black hedgehog. But Shadow turning him into a mindless slave, literally, was far more then he had bargained for. Not after what he had given him. He was expecting torture, evil scheming, or some sort of world domination plan maybe, not something this literal or this intimate. This was beyond evil, this was Eggman territory. How could he have even planned such a thing? This left him extremely upset.

Sonic had returned to the planet, but he wasn't exactly on it. He was doing the one thing he needed more practice at. Flying. He was soaring high in the midday sunlight, feeling the air beneath his wings. Slowly learning how they worked so he could make the most out of them. He travelled vast distances, to his surprise, hunger didn't bother him all day. He remembered the night before, when he and Shadow... Sonic didn't know what to think anymore. Did he regret it? He wasn't sure. He was beginning to. He remembered biting Shadow, a lot. He must have drank enough blood to last him for a few days. Thank goodness for small mercies. He didn't fancy going on another killing spree to quench his hunger. He continued flying until the sun started to set and twilight began to close in. He hadn't seen anyone all day.

He was passing over a meadow that looked familiar, when he heard commotion below him. He could see a large cage at the side of the field, by a large tree, with some kind on creature within it. The cage was surrounded by people. Their voices rang up into the sky.

"Careful, he going to break free." One screamed.

"Please stop him!" another cried.

Sonic recognised them, he was his so-called old friends. He lowered and steered to the left slightly. He focused his eyes to get a better look. They had no idea he was above them. Knuckles, Rouge and Vector were gathered around the cage. Wave was in Amy's arms, screaming and crying. The creature was bashing against the cage so hard, it was buckling. Then he remembered.

Jet. Sonic stared. He barely recognised the hawk, he had changed so much. Come to think about it, he barely recognised himself. Jet was larger then before, his feathers now darker, larger and rougher. His arms and torso had really bulked out, making him top heavy, so he was walking around on all fours. His eyes were red and his fangs were protruding from is beak so badly that he couldn't close his mouth properly. What had he done to him? What had his venom done? Sonic had no idea. But before be could think, there was an almighty roar from the cage and Jet broke through. His friends scattered. Sonic made up his mind. Their had been too much killing in recent days and he didn't anyone else to die. He was going to help them despite what they did to him. Thinking back, he was very cruel to them, he deserved their rejection. But that was then and this is now. He had a hawk monster to deal with.

He dived. As he plummeted to the ground, he thrust out his hands, claws bared, fangs out, hissing. The sun had set as he landed on Jet. Nobody saw him coming. They all screamed, but Sonic ignored them. He landed on the hawk's back, clawing him, biting him, but he was easily thrown off. He had a problem. He had the strength and speed to stop Jet but lacked the weight to through around. Jet was heavier and going to difficult to move. Time to have a play with the laws of physics. Speed times acceleration equals force. To combine his super-spin with his super-speed on the ground, with his wings. He had never done this before, and the results were spectacular. He span into a ball and charged at Jet, again and again, from every direction, on and above the ground. This wings simply allowed him to stay in the air for longer. This form of attack proved to be extremely effective as Jet backed away into the cage. Sonic was loosing his temper and roared at Jet until he was cowering in the back of the cage, whimpering.

Sonic smirked. You can't out vampire the pureblood, he was born this way. Just like you can't out evil someone born that way either. Sonic thoughts went back to Shadow. He didn't notice the others gather around him.

"Thank you?" questioned a nervous voice behind him. This snapped Sonic from his thoughts and turned around. It was Knuckles. "I didn't know you could fly?" He asked.

Sonic looked over his shoulder at his wings. He loved them now, they were a part of him now. He spoke quietly and emotionlessly.

"Yeah, sure!" he said. "As for these," indicating over his shoulder. "Their new. Got them when I turned."

"But you didn't..." Knuckles was about to enquire why Sonic hadn't showed them eariler, but he changed his mind. There was more pressing matters.

"Why are you helping us?" He asked, giving Sonic a sideways look.

Sonic sighed. He gave up. The whole evil thing, he wasn't for him anymore. He tried it, and there were situations when it was fun. But with old friends, it just wasn't worth it anymore. He still cared after all, just about. Not easy through Chaos darkness, which was heavily blocking it. Time to cut out all the bull.

"There had been enough killing." He said honestly. Knuckles gave him another sideways look. Sonic gulped, the Echidna knew what he was getting at. "I know, I know, I haven't helped that statement in recent days. I was hungry." They stared at him. "Hey." He defended. "I'm still new at this too." He had been a full fledged vampire for less then a month.

Knuckles looked at him. It was obvious that the Echidna didn't believe or trust him, but he was staring at him in such as way that it bore into Sonic. Sonic wasn't keen.

"What?" He spat.

"You've been marked!" He said, disbelieving. The others gasped. Sonic went red, he knew exactly what that meant. When a couple mate and bond. They mark each other. This is a chemical signature that tells other male sapients that a female, for example, is taken and to look elsewhere. Knuckles could not only read it but could tell who left it. Sonic couldn't hold hit it in any more, and burst into tears. He completely broke down. Knuckles ran to him and grabbed him.

"That black..." He swore. He was fuming with Shadow. He may have fallen out with Sonic, but even the vampire didn't deserve this.

"What the hell did he do to you?" He asked, shaking Sonic. The vampire couldn't answer, it was to painful. Knuckles dreaded to think. He partially didn't want to know, but he was now really concerned for his old friend. A month of evil bad attitude didn't offset a lifetime of friendship. The Echidna had a hunch Sonic wouldn't do anything now. Shadow had marked him and ripped him to pieces in the process. Did Shadow force him? Did the vampire let him? Knuckles just didn't know as he lead Sonic back to Tails' House after they had successfully restrained Jet.

It was extremely weird being back inside the house. The last time he was here felt like a lifetime ago. It has been a busy month, a changing month. He nervously entered the house. He could sense he still wasn't completely trusted, but this was progress. He looked around at them. He had calmed down somewhat, though his mind and heart were still mush.

"I'm sorry!" he said in a quiet voice. "That I was evil to you, I just..."

"Couldn't help it." Knuckles smirked at him. Sonic stared. The Echidna continued. "I know all about Chaos darkness, and it's dangers. Great-grandfather told me before he died. It grabs you and doesn't let go. You cease to care about those around you, and blocks everything out but yourself."

Sonic nodded intently. Knuckles was spot on.

"But." he continued. "How have you managed to punch though it? If you were truly Chaos dark, you would have just flown on by and left us to deal with Jet alone."

Sonic sighed. "I don't know." He stammered. "But believe me, I have. I do still care, underneath it all, just about. But it comes and goes, depends on vampire instincts and situation. But if push became major shove." Sonic paused, staring at them all. He was pleading with them. "I'm with you all the way." He sighed. "I don't have the guts to do anything, I thought I did, but I can't. I can be all talk, but that just me." he smiled lightheartedly. He was trying to lighten the mood. They all looked at each other, there were whispers around the room. Some of them believed him, some didn't. It was some time before anyone spoke.

"Where is Shadow anyway?" silence reigned. It was Rouge who spoke. Sonic's temper flared out of nowhere. He rounded on her.

"I don't know and I don't care." He swore at her. Why was he so angry at her? But she had inadvertently proved his point. Knuckles grabbed him and held him back. He felt the Echidna's calm strength and stopped fighting. He could do this, he could be trusted again, but he'd got an uphill climb ahead of him. He walked away from Knuckles towards a clear wall to lean against to get his head back in gear.

Knuckles was surprised. He didn't realise that Sonic struggled to keep control so much. To keep the darkness at bay. He had seen what happens when he didn't bother. It lead to them falling out. He walked over to Sonic and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I help?" He asked. Sonic looked up at him. That Echidna was incredible. Sonic shuddered, keeping the evil at bay was difficult. He desperately wanted to mock him, to rip him to pieces, but he couldn't do it, not anymore.

"Unless you know how to control the worst evil in the world, not really." He stammered. Knuckles smiled.

"Then keep trying, and don't slip back there, no matter how tempting it is. If you do keep fighting, then you and me have no quarrel." Sonic looked amazed at Knuckles, he was indeed incredible.

"How can you trust him?" Squealed Amy from the background. Sonic's eyes narrowed at her.

"I don't!" said Knuckles. "I'm giving him a chance, it is what he would do for us." He paused, and suddenly grabbed the blue vampire. "Whoa! Sonic. SONIC?"

Sonic hadn't been listening. His eyes had been fixed on Amy. He hated her. He wanted to bite her. He wanted her dead. He wasn't hungry, but he wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. He had been slithering towards her, on the hunt, bearing his fangs.

Knuckles had to hit Sonic to snap him out of it.

"Ok." he sighed. "This is going to be more difficult then I thought." He glared at Sonic.

"What?" The vampire defended.

"Leave Amy alone!" Knuckles spat at him. Sonic growled back. That went against everything in his entire being, but their friendship was worth more now. They stared at each other, until Sonic gave in.

"Ok, fine." He spat. "But only if she leaves me alone. If she even touches me, I'll kill her." He was fuming.

Knuckles was somewhat satisfied at that. It was the best result he was going to get in the situation.

Tails have been ignoring the conversation. He had been working on the directory that Shadow had originally gave them and had almost cracked it. The word 'ghost' referred to a super-secret project Eggman was working on whose headquarters lay somewhere in the North Mountains. That was vast area. He was about to get an exact location when all of sudden, his entire house shock violently and the power was cut. They were plunged into total darkness. Sunrise wasn't for another several hours. Some of them screamed and panicked. Knuckles tried to get control of the situation.

"Can anyone see the torches?" he hollowed. He couldn't see a thing. Tails replied.

"Knuckles, I can't find them. I can't see." He sounded panicked. His house was still shaking.

Sonic piped up, suddenly realising that with his vampire abilities, he was the only one there who could see. The night vision was extremely good, better then his day vision.

"I can!" He yelled. "Where are they?" Silence replied to Sonic. But then Knuckles answered.

"Under the sink, can you get them?" Sonic went straight for them. It was just like old times. He got the torches and handed then around. Then he was back at Knuckles' side. Sonic was using him as a guide, and they both knew it. If Sonic was going to get this right, live potentially without evil, he was going to need the Echidna's help. Knuckles turned to him. He was beginning to understand the vampire now and his abilities, though he was still concerned about what Shadow had done to him. But Sonic wasn't talking and now wasn't the time.

"Can you see anything out of the window?" Knuckles asked him. Sonic stared through the glass into the moonless night. There was clunky movement of a very large metallic object in the distance. Sonic couldn't make it out at first, but it was firing missiles at the house, making it shake. Parts of house were beginning to fall. It wouldn't stay standing for much longer. The metallic object was walking with the thump, thump, across the landscape. A giant robot, that someone appeared to be piloting. Sonic recognised them. He swore very loudly, as he jumped away from the window, as an explosion blow the glass out. Silence followed.

"It's Eggman!, he's firing at the house!" Sonic shouted. The missiles kept coming. "He's got some nerve attacking us directly!"

"Where has he been?" Tails asked. But Knuckles cut across him.

"Never mind that." He shouted. "Sonic, he's baiting you out!"

"What!" Sonic exclaimed. "I can't leave you." He had only just rejoined the group, he didn't want to leave. Knuckles pushed him.

"You have too. This house can't take much more. Plus..." He added, smirking. "He's been missing for the past month. Hide yourself, he doesn't know." Sonic looked back at Knuckles and smirked in return. He knew exactly what the Echidna meant. Knuckles knew that Sonic had the ability to hide the vampiric part of him and look normal. He had managed to hide his wings. He was suggesting that Sonic did so. He now realised the lives of his friends were now in his hands. He had to do this. They were relying on him, whether they wanted to or not.

"Go!" Knuckles urged. He was now holding the house up. Sonic now had no choice. He went for the door, opened it and ran.

He ran across the countryside towards Eggman. He wasn't difficult to find. Eggman always left complete destruction everywhere he went. Every instinct told him to take to the sky, but he couldn't, not just yet. He had to let Eggman believe that he was still normal. But then he suddenly remembered. When Shadow hacked into Eggman's database, the word 'vampire' granted access. Was that a reference to him? He didn't know. Then Sonic's mind drifted to Shadow. He still had mixed feelings. He still loved him, but he still hated him for believing he could control him like that.

Sonic was snapped out of his thoughts, when a metal leg of a robot narrowly missed him. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going. He barely dodged. Eggman's robot was huge. In the shape of a giant tarantula. With eight enormous legs, each one them hitting the ground with a deadly super-sharp slicing point. Eggman was sitting aloft his mighty machine, on the thorax of the spider. The cockpit was surrounded by a reinforced glass dome, three stories above the ground. Compared to other robots Sonic had faced, this one was one of the fastest. Yes, the spider could move.

It was fast, Sonic was faster. When Eggman saw Sonic, he immediately stopped attacking Tails' House and went after him, full on. Sonic dodged those legs, left, then right, down a crevice, up a hill. Lasers and bullets were flying in his direction. Sonic was beginning to wonder. This was far more dangerous then usual. He wasn't worried for his life, he was immortal, but his friends weren't. He ran, he span. He was trying to get up in the air to jump on the back of the tarantula. He ran ahead of the spider, and leapt high in the sky, curled up up into a ball and span. He backwards summersaulted and managed to land a top of the robot. Sonic rounded on Eggman. He looked surprised. That cockpit's dome was no match for Sonic's newly-found vampire strength, but he didn't get the chance. Something shot him in the back. He was blown off the spider and landed hard on the ground. Sonic rolled over, he was badly bleeding. Someone grabbed him and pulled him to temporary safety.

Knuckles.

"Where are the others?" Sonic gasped.

"Safe. The house was destroyed so I've sent them to Tails' house Mark-Two." What? Sonic didn't know Tails had a second house. Knuckles saw Sonic's confusion.

"It was strictly between me and Tails. No one else knew. It was emergency backup plan if we lost the first house."

'Ok, whatever.' Sonic thought, now was not the time for details, he was in too much pain. They were being shot at but not only from the tarantula. There a second robot. That one who shot Sonic. It was from a giant stag beetle, its pincers snapping closed, slicing through everything. And aloft...

A second Eggman. Identical to the first, right down to clothing and manner. What the? Sonic swore. They both stared. Things was getting dangerous, as they didn't notice behind them.

Some black and extremely fast flashed past them and hit the ground hard a few metres away. Whatever it was, took the missile meant for Knuckles. He rolled over on the ground and somehow staggered to his feet, bleeding badly.

Shadow.

He looked around at what shot him. A third giant robot, a wasp flying above them, aloft... a third Eggman.

Now it was getting extremely dangerous. Chances of surviving were dwindling by the second.

Shadow dragged himself towards them. He spoke to Knuckles.

"You have to leave, you can't survive this!" He hissed. It was obvious he had tracked them down using the Ark. Sonic was glad he was there. Knuckles agreed. As they spoke, they were all still dodging bullets from three directions.

Make that four! Gunfire came out of nowhere straight at Knuckles. Shadow reacted faster then Sonic, shielding the Echidna. He took the bullets. He stumbled to the ground. A fourth robot appear, a giant army ant, with more guns and lasers then any of the others put together. A fourth Eggman laughed. Knuckles now realised he was now out of his league and ran for his life. He had no choice. The hedgehogs were on their own.

Four Eggmans. All identical. Knuckles was extremely confused. What was going on? He didn't know. He suspected no one did. As he ran, he realised he wasn't being followed, they were letting him go. He had been injured, several bullets had hit him, but not severely. He would survive. He heard further gun fire and explosions behind him. He feared for his friends lives.

Four Eggmans verses two immortals hedgehogs. Would Sonic and Shadow going make it out alive?

In a word.

No.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight – Instinct**

It was the worse fight Sonic and Shadow had had in their lives. Their speed and power, supernatural or otherwise, just was't enough. Sonic had never been hit with so many bullets in his life, the pain was excruciating. He was getting extremely fed up of being shot at. The vampire within him had exploded and he had taken to air. Flying did give him an advantage, but against four Eggmans, it didn't last long. They were all utterly determined on taking him down, and eventually, they succeeded.

He was dead.

He felt himself fall into the darkness and soon all was quiet. The darkness lasted far longer this time and he felt vampire rise within. The hunger was unbearable and when he finally awoke, he had lost complete control. He could smell blood, a lot of it. Eyes flaring blood red, fangs bared, he wanted it. He wanted it badly. He sat up and was just about the strike, when someone grabbed him from behind. Someone strong and powerful. Holding him back, he put his arm in front of Sonic teeth and fangs. The vampire grabbed it and bit down hard. Drinking extremely heavily. The blood was warm, thick and like liquid gold. Sonic's vampire within slowly began to settle. He could hear voices around him.

"Shh, my sweet." Quietly hissed a voice in his ear. It was extremely cold but soothing. "Drink, you will feel better, I promise." He recognised it. He loved it. But his mind was to mushed to think properly.

"Ouch." Said another voice, sounding startled. "Doesn't that hurt?" It too was familiar, young and intelligent.

There was a distinct and cold "No!" from behind him.

Then another voice appeared, this one sounding relieved. "Thank god, he's awake." Then there was pause. "How is he?"

The ice cold voice sounded again from behind him. "Feeding!" There was a slight hesitation. "Don't worry, I can handle it!" It added strongly.

Sonic mind was beginning to clear. The blurred vision slowly disappeared. He could see again. It took him several moments to realise that he had his fangs deep in Shadow's arm. They were sat on a table, the black hedgehog behind him. Sonic's eyes widened and he let go of him. Sonic had taken a lot more blood then he had intended. Shadow stumbled backwards. Sonic grabbed him. Shadow had come back for him. He did care. He was even willing giving himself for him. Sonic grabbed the black hedgehog and hugged him. He didn't care anymore. All was forgiven. Shadow was just thankful that Sonic had successfully regenerated, it was touch and go at one point.

That was when Sonic realised that they were surrounded by their friends. He quickly broke apart from Shadow looking somewhat embarrassed. Shadow was smirking.

"Don't worry, they know. I told them." Sonic was gobsmacked. What? He looked at his friends. They seemed ok with it? He looked around, they were all there, in a room he didn't recognise. He rubbed his face and eyes, that regeneration took it out of him.

"How long have a been out?" Sonic asked openly.

"A week!" Knuckles replied. He too had made it out, but this time alive. Sonic stared.

"A week?" He gasped.

"Yeah." Knuckles said. "Shadow regenerated before you did!" Shadow's regeneration normally takes a couple of days. Sonic looked at him. The black hedgehog didn't make it out alive either. Sonic gulped. Knuckles continued.

"He told us that you should have regenerated is just a few hours, so when you didn't, we'd thought we'd permanently lost you!" Sonic stared. Knuckles smiled and went on.

"You were pretty beat up when we found you. We had to wait until it was all over before we could go in and get you. The Eggmans must have decided that with you and Shadow dead. The rest of us were not worth bothering with. Thankfully. We haven't seen any of them since the fight."

Sonic raised an eyebrow but Knuckles continued. "Your body ripped to pieces, ridged with bullet holes. Tails pulled two hundred bullets out of you." Sonic gulped again, he put his hand on his chest, it was unscathed. Knuckles laughed.

"Don't worry, Shadow won that contest, he pulled four hundred and fifty bullets out of him." Sonic swung round at Shadow, his smirk broadened but Sonic swore that he saw the black hedgehog wink. Shadow on the other hand, was still in some pain after being bitten, Sonic had over-drank from him, but he was just relieved that his beloved was alive. Yes, Shadow now returned the love Sonic showed to him. Having Sonic run out on him, then nearly die, was more then Shadow could bear. Now that he got him back, he was utterly gut determined to make a mends. Sonic's friends gave him a chance to do this in return for saving Knuckles' life. Sonic sighed.

"What happened?" He gasped. Knuckles spat.

"Four Eggmans, that's what." They all looked at Shadow. He growled.

"It wasn't me!" he hissed.

"But it had to be genetic engineering of some sort." Tails cut in.

"If it is." Shadow said. "Then its greater skill then I or Gerald Robotnik ever processed." He paused as he thought. Four Eggmans, all identical. He had to be one thing. But how? It was only a theory. Sonic stared at him. They are did.

"Cloning." Shadow spat.

"But that's impossible!" Tails gasped. Shadow smirked.

"Not entirely." They all looked at him. "Cloning has been possible for several years, but getting the clones to survive more then a few days after creation was the major problem. I am an original, not a clone and when you create a lifeform, you create an infant, which must grow into the adult form you desire." He sighed. "Let just say I didn't have a much of a childhood." Shadow was not used to being this honest. He quickly moved on. "The same is true for cloning, you create an infant copy of the original, which must grow into the adult..."

"But die soon after birth." Tails thought. Shadow cut across him.

"Technically their not born." He spat. The black hedgehog was getting uncomfortable with the subject matter. It was a little to close to home. Sonic noticed and cut in.

"Ok, so the clones are created from an original. Not born. Any ideas why they died?"

Sonic was a lifesaver, Shadow was not looking forward to explaining how the infants themselves were created. It was a extremely complicated and gory process. It had happened to him, and he didn't want to be reminded of it.

"I don't know." Shadow said bluntly

"Come on, Shads." Sonic beckoned. Shadow looked at him.

"Seriously, I don't know." He growled at Sonic. He continued. "It wasn't Gerald Robotnik's field of expertise. He was more interested in creating an original rather then to clone. He wanted the ultimate lifeform, not an army." He glared at them. He had a point. "All my knowledge comes from him, plus what I have read over the years. Why those clones died? I don't know. Or as to what those Eggman clones, if that is what they are, survived I don't know either. Assuming that is, one of them isn't the original." He smirked at that last thought.

"So what do we do?" Knuckles asked, frustrated as not really being much further forward.

Shadow got off the table next to Sonic, he felt a little dizzy, his body was still recovering from being over-drained. He rubbed his arm, the bite mark had long since healed. He would be alright. Sonic began to feel extremely guilty. Shadow must have sensed it.

"Don't!" He hissed at the vampire. "You can't change who you are." Sonic got off the table and stood beside him.

"Neither can you." Sonic smiled at him. "So what do we do?" Shadow was taken aback.

"Your asking me!" he said stunned. He had gone from being ultimate enemy to trusted ally in a single fight, one which he'd lost. Shadow was not used to this.

Knuckles cut in. "You seem to know whats going on!"

Oh no, he didn't. He had some background information, that was all. He was about to argue when Sonic cut in.

"Let's say, in theory, these four Eggmans were clones, what would that need?" Shadow didn't know the answer to that but understood what the vampire was getting at. He was wanting an educated guess from him as an geneticist. He thought.

"As a guess, I think that they would need food, water and regular maintenance."

"Regular maintenance?" Sonic asked. He sighed.

"Yes. Due to the unstable nature of cloning, the theory is that the DNA transference from the original to the copy is not exact, in fact it's pretty rubbish and so the clones break down and age far more quickly. They would have to be some sort of headquarters where the maintenance work was done."

"I think I may have found that." Tails butted in. Everyone turned to face him. He continued. "Shadow, remembered that directory you sent me from the Ark." The black hedgehog nodded. Tails hurried on. "Well, just before my old house was hit, I nearly cracked at 'ghost' directory. It referred to a secret project whose headquarters lay somewhere in the North Mountains. I know that's a huge area. I nearly got specifics, but the power cut. It was all I could get."

"Tails, your a genius." Knuckles said, grabbing the fox and hugging him. He giggled. But something was puzzling Sonic.

"What do you mean 'old house'?" He asked. But before anyone could answer Shadow's knees gave way from under him and he would have hit the floor if Sonic hadn't caught him.

"I'm alright." insisted Shadow, getting back to his feet. "I just need to sleep. Thats what I did the last time you over-drained me." he added, smirking, referring back to the night they bonded. Sonic went red, he remembered. Knuckles wondered over to them. "Look, you two, take care of each other. We going to need you both in peak condition if we are going to finish this and survive. Shadow, fill him in where we are and Sonic." He paused, rolling his eyes. "Please don't over-drain him again." Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. They smirked. Knuckles folded his arms.

"I'm going to help Tails pinpoint the location of those headquarters. Everyone meet back here in the morning for an update. Any further ideas, please let me know." Knuckles did make for a very good group leader.

And with that, they all left the room and soon, Sonic and Shadow were alone. Sonic was surprised that Knuckles trusted Shadow. He filled Sonic in on a lot of information. Where they were, what happened to the old house and how saving a life can change your mind about someone. For Sonic, it was a lot to take in, but for Shadow, he was extremely grateful that the vampire had forgiven him. When he saw him under attack from the Ark, he had to help. He had no idea there were multiple Eggmans down there, the Ark told him nothing. He had been caught out just like the others and had died as a result. Regenerating for Shadow was extremely painful, but for the vampire, it was worth it. He would do anything for him now. Now that they were alone. They kissed and embraced. They moved through the house to their room, and retire for the night. Both hedgehogs exhausted.

"SHADOW!"

The black hedgehog woke with a start. He didn't sleep often and when he did, he despised being disturbed. It was the middle of the night and soon he realised he was alone. His beloved had gone. He frowned, then he heard it again.

"SHADOW!"

There were screams elsewhere in the house. He got to his feet and ran. Through the aladdin's cave of a house, or rather, mansion, to the lounge area. The electric light temporarily blinding him. He shock it off and looked around. Someone grabbed him. Knuckles.

"Thank god, He's gone mad. Quickly before he kills someone!"

Confused, he looked around. Only when he looked up did he see him.

Sonic was crawling along the ceiling, claws out, fangs bared. How he was able to stick to the ceiling? Shadow never knew. Sonic turned to face them. Shadow instant realised something was wrong. His eyes weren't red or green as they usually were, but completely black. Shadow swore, panicked. He was looking at pure, raw vampire, Sonic was still asleep. He had his eyes on Amy.

He swore again. "Everyone out." Shadow demanded. "He's sleep-walking!" or in Sonic's case, sleep-hunting. The vampire wanted blood. A lot of it. Shadow gulped. Was this vampire's appetite unquenchable? Knuckles looked at him.

"I thought you said you could control the vampire within him." He questioned.

"I can." Shadow spat back. "Get out." He growled. This angered Knuckles. Shadow rounded on him.

"Do you want to get bitten?" He added.

Knuckles went white. They both knew if Sonic bit anyone but Shadow, he would kill them. Even if he didn't drain them, his potent venom would finish them off. Sonic was now an extremely dangerous person to have around. Knuckles didn't argue, and rounded the others up, Amy, Tails, Cream and Cheese, Team Chaotix and Rouge and moved them all to a safer part of the house. He came back to aid Shadow but kept to the sidelines. This was immortal business and out of his league. But as newly appointed leader of the group since Sonic turned, he felt responsible. Sonic, as a vampire, just couldn't be trusted anymore.

Shadow was slowly sliding around the room. He had caught the vampire attention and was trying to persuade him down from the ceiling.

"Come on, my sweet!" He coldly hissed, under his breathe. "I know your still in there, come back to me."

Sonic stared at him, His completely black eyes shining in the electric light. They were completely blank. No emotion, no sparkles, nothing. Sonic wasn't behind them. Shadow was worried. He jibbed at the vampire, challenging him to a fight. As the only source of blood still left in the room, Sonic took the bait. But Shadow underestimated him. Able to move around the room in less then a blink of an eye, he was behind the black hedgehog before Shadow had even realised he'd moved. Sonic grabbed him from behind, Shadow defended. Their strength was evenly matched now, but Shadow had a weight advantage, being four times heavier. Shadow rooted himself to the spot, and wouldn't be moved. But Sonic had the speed advantage, and used it to confuse him, attacking him all directions. This created the smallest of gaps in Shadow's defences where Sonic charged in and sunk his fangs in the black hedgehog's neck. Shadow's eyes widened. It triggered something inside of him. Instincts buried extremely deep inside of him. The bite was anything but pleasurable. It was extricating painful and Shadow roared. But those new instincts surged to the surface with a vengeance, and for the first time in his life, Shadow lost control. He attacked Sonic so brutally that he snapped him out of his sleep-walking.

Sonic woke with a start, in a heap on the floor, covered in blood.

"What the? Whoa, Whoa. Shadow? SHADOW?" He shouted

Shadow was running on automatic, but snapped out of it when he heard his name was shouted. He was shaking, in both fury and fright. The instincts disappeared as quickly was they arrived. He was back to normal. He looked down Sonic. The vampire was covered in deep claw marks and bleeding badly. He then looked down at his bloodstained gloves and saw sharp, one inch, retractable claws sticking out each finger, just like Sonic's but shorter. They were disappearing back into his hands, never to return. His eyes had been glowing red too, and then he felt his top jaw ache. His top canines had grown slightly, and sharpened and were now painfully sticking into his bottom lip. He knew exactly what it meant, he had had his suspicions for years, but found no evidence in any of Gerald Robotnik's archives . It was linked to where Shadow got his regeneration and immortality abilities from.

Shadow was in complete disbelieve. He had attacked his beloved which was bad enough but he now realised the true. He just couldn't handle it. He put his hands on his face.

"No, no, no, no, no!" He repeated. He was walking round in circles.

Sonic was dumbfounded. He had awoken on the floor, covered in blood with no memory of how he'd got there. Shadow was acting very strangely. He looked around and spotted Knuckles, cowering in the corner. He had seen everything and was now very frightened. Sonic had never seen Knuckles so frightened, he wasn't sure if he still had any trust left for either of them anymore. He too, had recognised Shadow's new instincts. Sonic indicated to him, Knuckles backed off. The vampire tried desperately to calm him.

"Please, Knuckles. What happened?." The Echidna didn't move, shaking badly. Sonic quickly continued. "I swear I won't hurt you." He added.

Knuckles looked into the vampire's eyes, they were green again, Sonic was back. Knuckles felt a little safer but was still nervous.

"You were sleep-walking." he spat at Sonic. "You tried to kill Amy!" Sonic gulped, he had sleep walked before but that was years ago, when he was a very small child. It happened very rarely, but it did happen. Now Sonic was frightened. He spotted Knuckles staring at Shadow, and followed his eye line. Shadow was in pieces. Sonic looked at claw marks on his arms, he frowned at Knuckles.

"He's a Vampire!" He snapped, pointed at Shadow. Sonic didn't believe it. The word 'vampire' quickly snapped Shadow out of his distress.

"No, I'm not." He defended. He looked at Sonic and his injuries, his heart fell. He had done that? He knew Sonic would recover, but that was besides the point. He collapsed to his knees. He sighed.

"Not a full one, anyway." he added quietly.

"Gerald!" Sonic gasped. Then Knuckles understood. That scientist must have used vampire DNA in the creation of Shadow. His speed, his regeneration skills, his immortality, they were all vampiric, and today, for the first time, the vampire within showed itself. It had been finally push far enough to do so. The Knuckles realised it wasn't Shadow's fault, he hadn't asked for it. Knuckles relaxed a bit. Both hedgehog's were back and in control. He turned to Shadow.

"Did you know?" he asked.

"No!" The black hedgehog answered honestly. "I had found no evidence on the ARK that Gerald had done this to me, but I had my suspicions. I guess it makes sense." He put his head down, ashamed. "Please forgive me." He added. He had not meant to hide it. He didn't want get kicked out like Sonic did when his vampire origins were revealed. Sonic smiled at the black hedgehog.

"Being a vampire isn't so bad." He grinned. They both looked at him.

"Until you loose control that is." Shadow spat back at him. He was very angry at himself for loosing it. He prided himself at being better then this. His vampiric instincts were now long gone, and Shadow wasn't even sure if he'd ever see them again. He had no idea they were even there. He sighed.

"What do we do now?" He asked openly.

"We carry on." Knuckles answered, swallowing his nerves. He was playing leader again and Shadow was happy to let him. "We still have four Eggmans to take out, and I will need you, if your still with me." The two hedgehogs nodded. He continued. "Unfortunately, due to what happened tonight, I'm going to have to segregate you from the rest of the group. It'll be safer for everyone this way." They didn't argue. They needed time to sort this out and they were better off alone.

"But I'm not kicking you out." He added with a smile. Knuckles knew their heart's were still with them, even if the rest of them wasn't. He rearranged the house and sorted out a new room for them well away from everyone else. Sonic and Shadow stood in their new room together. They embraced. At least they still had each other, and they were determined to repay Knuckles for his kindness.

Knuckles knew that having those two hedgehog's on the team was absolutely vital. He needed them. They wouldn't survive the oncoming war with Eggman without them. That was why Knuckles was accommodating them. They were a handful and dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Too dangerous, maybe. Shadow smirked at the new arrangement. If they won't allowed near anyone, then it was highly unlikely that anyone would disturb them. He meant that he had the vampire all to himself and could do what he pleased. But something had confused him. Why had the vampire accepted him back so easily, after what he tried to do. He asked him. Sonic turned and smiled at him.

"Thinking back. I realised that you genuinely didn't know the true extent of that spell. I think if you did, you wouldn't even considered it. Plus." He added. "You didn't use it on me anyway."

Shadow sighed. That was true. If he knew that spell turned the victim into a mindless slave, he wouldn't have even considered it. His idea of controlling someone, is for them to do as he asked, but for the fire to still remain. To have the thrill to see the fight back and to crush them when they did. A mindless slave would be, well, boring. He would thrill at the level of control but get bored at the lack of, well, anything else. He had no intention of controlling Sonic anymore. He had fallen for him, exactly as he was. It was still dark outside, and the vampire was stretching. Was he flirting with him?

Sonic had been thinking about Shadow origins and wasn't least bit surprised. They had had to many similarities for it to be a coincidence. Though he was surprised that Gerald didn't document it. Shadow gave the impression that the scientist wrote everything down. But he guessed the addition of the vampire DNA was done illegally and not part of original plan. So he couldn't mention it, otherwise he'd be caught. The cuts on his arms had now healed and he now looked at Shadow. The black hedgehog still looked somewhat shaken. Maybe even vulnerable. He may have been the Ultimate Lifeform but he wasn't completely indestructible. Sonic liked that, he liked that a lot. He mind turned to more intimate matters and Shadow responded.

Neither of them slept the rest of that night. They kissed, they embraced. Deep intense passion passed between them again. Pleasurable and perfect. It was morning and a knock at door before either of them realised the time.

Shadow had Sonic up against the wall, near the door, the vampire's fangs deep in his neck again. Feeding was pleasurable and Shadow was getting somewhat overwhelmed. He growled loudly through the door.

"Now is not the time!" He spat. Knuckles' voice responded.

"Tails has news, we need you in the lounge!" He paused, he could hear commotion from within the room. "What are you doing?" He asked puzzled.

Shadow was struggling to keep control. "Feeding!" He emotionlessly hollowed in return. Knuckles raised an eyebrow. Vampires really did have a strange way of doing things. Shadow sighed and regained some strength.

"We will be there, give us a minute." He added.

He could hear footsteps moving away, Knuckles had left. This was urgent, they had to move, but getting that vampire off him, proved incredible difficult. Sonic was all over him. Shadow had to be harsh, borderline downright evil, to get him to behave. He was very cruel to him, so cruel that Sonic cried. That made things worse as the black hedgehog hated seeing tears on that vampire. But they had a job. There was work to done.

By the time they made it to the lounge, Sonic was still upset at Shadow. Knuckles noticed that he had been in tears, and was thankful no one else did. He was a little surprised at first, he hardly ever saw Sonic cry, but considering who the vampire had just spent the night with, it wasn't that surprising. Shadow seemed a lot colder then his usual self.

The Echidna moved towards the vampire, smiling.

"Did you misbehave?" he whispered. Sonic looked at him. He sniffed. He nodded.

"He was really cruel to me." He whispered back. Knuckles rounded on him.

"You really can't afford to mess him about like this." He hissed, trying to say out of earshot of Shadow. "Other wise this will always happen. He's a professional..." Knuckles wanted Sonic and Shadow to have as little tension between them as possible. He believed it may reduce the chances of further...incidents. But Sonic cut in.

"And you can't out evil the ex-bad guy, I know, I know." He was right. They smirked at each other.

But Tails' announcement cut across them.

"I've done it!" He squealed. "I've cracked the directory. I know where the base is!"

They all looked at each other.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine – Chaos**

"What else did you find?" Shadow had keenly asked. There was both anticipation and fear in the room. Sonic and Shadow were excited, it was their chance to get their revenge on Eggman. But there was extreme fear in the room. Eggman had never been so dangerous. There was a chance this next battle could take lives. That's why the hedgehogs were there. They could regenerate. Tails could hardly contain his excitement.

"It didn't really contain that much information. Just that this was super-secret project Eggman was working on, whose headquarters lay somewhere in the North Mountains. It didn't give any specific as to the exact location of the base. I found it because the directory only gives information about the power consumption of the base, which are extensive. More then all of Eggmans other bases put together. Hoping it was still operational, I hacked the satellites and used their thermal imaging cameras on the North Mountains area. It lit up like a firework. It was producing that much heat. Far more then I expected. I also used that image to calculate its floor plan. It's massive, more then ten times larger then the last base we destroyed." There was silence. Shadow was very impressed. Tails continued. "As to any clues as to what 'ghost' could mean. I got nothing."

They were all extremely frightened. They all looked at the hedgehogs. They were their only chance. The base was potentially large enough to hide an army. Nobody knew. Tails spoke again.

"I may have found the base, but there's a major problem. The base has been built so deep into the North Mountains, that I suspect the only way in is by air."

All eyes turned to Sonic.

"What?" he spat.

"Can you carry Shadow?" Tails asked. Sonic eyes widened.

"I don't know." He spat. "Do you know how much he weighs? I can't carry him." Shadow growled. He was being insulted. "Can't he Chaos Control in?" Tails rounded on him.

"No." He said simply. They all stared. Even Shadow paid attention now. He had never been stopped from Chaos Controlling anywhere. Tails continued. "From the thermal imaging photos I spotted that there is some kind of exclusion zone around the base, it incorporates most of the North Mountains. There is no Chaos in there, it's completely gone. Its a some kind of Chaos Neutral Zone." Everyone stared, No Chaos means no life.

"Whoa, whoa!" said Sonic. "I've been to the North Mountains, the place is covered in pine forest. If there was a Chaos Neutral Zone there, there would be no trees."

"All of those trees are artificial, and you never noticed the change when you entered the zone, because one, the zone is invisible and two, your a vampire. If it had been one of us mere mortals that went in, we would have instantly dropped dead. You have no choice, you have to carry him there."

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. Sonic gulped.

"Those trees didn't look artificial to me." He added, but Shadow was looking nervous. An emotion Shadow just didn't do. Sonic was concerned.

"You alright?" Shadow looked up.

"I have never been to a Chaos Neutral Zone before. I'm unsure if can survive it!"

He looked frightened. Chaos was his life. His body depended on it. He body acted like a large pair of batteries, they stored Chaos energy, which was slowly released later. These were his source of food and how he survived. Without Chaos, his batteries would just run flat and he could potentially die, permanently. He looked at Sonic and then he noticed something about the vampire for the first time. The potential reason why Shadow was so drawn to him, even when he first met him. He realised that Sonic's body generated its own Chaos, enough Chaos for Shadow's body to potentially feed off. This was completely unique to Sonic. All life produces Chaos but only in microscopic amounts. It is the combination of all life on Mobious that produced the Chaos of the planet. It also may have been the reason why Sonic survived the Chaos Neutral Zone so easily.

Shadow mind and body was perfectly alined with Chaos. This was why he was considered the master, the King of Chaos. Not only could he see Chaos, which is completely invisible, but he could feel it too. He could see a person's Chaos aura, their lifeforce, which appeared to Shadow as a pale halo around their head, in various colours. Sonic's aura had been pure white and extremely bright. So bright that it took Shadow a lot of time to get used to it. Or at least it used to be white. Since Sonic turned, his aura had turned completely black. It was as dark as his, but shone far brighter. He had never seen anyone else with an aura like it, and Shadow only now realised it was directly linked to his ability to generate Chaos. He was staring the Sonic.

"Shadow, what is it?" Sonic enquired. The black hedgehog's mind had been elsewhere for some time. Shadow smirked at Sonic. He was incredible. Shadow grabbed both his hands.

"Sonic." He said, he sounded calm. A little too calm for Sonic's liking. "Your body can generate extremely large quantities of Chaos." Sonic's jaw dropped.

"What?" He gasped. Tails cut in.

"That's impossible, no one lifeform can produce more then a few micrograms of Chaos over it's life time." Shadow growled at Tails.

"Sonic can, I can see it. I have always be able to, it's just I didn't realise what I was looking at."

"Will it be enough?" Rouge cut across. Everyone was there, listening. "For you to survive on in the Chaos Neutral Zone if you stay together?" Rouge knew about Shadow needing to feed on Chaos.

Shadow thought, he had no idea, and considering his batteries were running pretty low and had been for several days, he was eager for a recharge.

"Let's find out, shall we." He hissed extremely coldly. He was now looking at Sonic. What had that black hedgehog have on his mind? "Take off your glove!" Shadow demanded.

"What?" Sonic objected.

"Just do it!" Knuckles intervened, he had been listening in to and was extremely curious. "If this works." He added. "Then we can formulate a plan for getting you guys into the base."

"Can I go alone?" Sonic argued.

"No." Tails snapped. "You wouldn't last two minutes against the security of that place, I can see them on the thermal imaging photos. It will take both of you to get in. However, I can detect Chaos in the building, but it's completely dead outside."

Sonic sighed, he didn't have a choice. He took off his glove. His light brown hand was surprisingly small compared to the size of his glove. Shadow did the same. His hand was completely black except for thin red stripes that went down his hand, to the tips of his fingers from his wrist. He had never seen Shadow without his gloves on.

Shadow smirked. Now it was his turn to feed of Sonic for a change. The two gloveless hands met as they took each other.

"Whoa!" Sonic squealed as he felt a jerk as large quantities of energy left him, through his hand. But there was no pain, no feeling of being drained. His body was more then able to cope. He looked at his hand. There wisps of black light traveling down Sonic's arm through his hand into Shadow. Chaos transfer usually happens with skin-to-skin touch and only happens because both of them want it to. Before that they never knew it was possible so therefore it never happened before.

"What is that?" Sonic asked. Shadow realised that the vampire had never seen it before.

"Chaos!" He hissed. Sonic stared in amazement.

Shadow's body was having a field day as the Chaos entered him. It was his version of liquid gold and he was struggling to keep composure. His eyes were now vividly glowing black. The Chaos was far more darker and super-concentrated then he expected. His batteries were full in a matter of minutes. This blow his mind. He broke off his connection before he over egged it, and he sat there shaking, holding his hand. He swore loudly. He looked at Sonic, he seemed not the worse for his experience.

But Sonic's mind had been blown, within the last twenty-four hours, he had found out that Shadow was part-vampire and that he was a walking Chaos generator. But, thinking about it, the signs for both had been there the whole time. They had been too stupid to notice them. It left one thing for certain, as he watched Shadow slinking to the shadows of the lounge to get some peace. They were now completely dependant on each other for survival. Well, Shadow wasn't as dependant on him as he was on Shadow. He could get Chaos elsewhere but Sonic doubted that he would turn down a concentrated Chaos dark boost. He saw Shadow quietly watching the others. He fell in love with him even more now, he was no longer upset with him, knowing he could give something back for all the blood he had taken. They were working together in the fight against the four Eggmans. Sonic was so excited, he couldn't wait.

Knuckles looked over to Shadow. "You alright? Did it work?"

Shadow looked up, absolute pure evil in his heart. He had just feed on concentrated Chaos dark rather then the usual bitty Chaos light he found in the world around him, and it was far more effective at quenching his hunger.

But he had no quarrel with Knuckles. Sonic on the other hand, but that was a different matter. He now desperately wanted that vampire.

"Oh, yes." he hissed, extremely coldly. That voice was so cold it frightened Knuckles a little but he stood his ground.

"Are you still with us?"

The black hedgehog nodded. He wanted Eggman's head. All four of them. He no longer had any fear of the Chaos Neutral Zone. So long as he stayed close to Sonic, he would be fine, though he expected his batteries not to last as long in the Chaos Neutral Zone, as they would do normally. Specking of Sonic, he stared at the vampire at the other end of the room. Their eyes met. Sonic had the suspicion that more passion was going to pass between them before the day was out. He was later proved right.

Signing with relief that Shadow was still onside, Knuckles started formulating a plan. He turned and looked at Tails.

"Did you say earlier that there is Chaos inside the building?" Tails nodded. They all at each other. How was Eggman able to create a Chaos Neutral Zone the first place? Then to create Chaos? He must have found a way of artificially create and remove Chaos. They asked Shadow, he used to work for Eggman, but he had no memory of any such technology or anything in development. There was nothing in his databases. This was advanced, extremely advanced technology. Far beyond Eggman's capability. Someone must have helped him, but who? They all knew of no one with that kind of knowledge.

Knuckles was pacing the room, with everyone's full attention.

"If there is Chaos in the building, then Eggman must have a way to teleportation in and out of the place, as he can't pass through the Chaos Neutral Zone either." Knuckles did have a point. "If you guys..." He added looking Sonic and then at Shadow. "Can cross the Chaos Neutral Zone, sneak into the building, and find that teleporter, you could teleport rest of us in and we can set charges and blow the place." He grinned.

"A lot of charges." Tails added. He seemed to be the only person there who understood the shear size of the place. They all looked at him. "Your going to need at least fifty charges to take this building out, it is that large." That was the entire remainder of their supply, they had just about enough.

It was a hair-brained plan, complete madness and Sonic liked it. He couldn't think of anything better. It was their only chance to solve the mystery. It was also extremely dangerous for those non-immortals. If the Chaos inside the building were to fail, they would immediately die. Knuckles knew this and said that he wouldn't put it against anyone of they didn't want to go. He, however, immediately volunteered, not expecting anyone else to do so. Sonic was extremely impressed. Knuckles' selfless bravery reminded him of himself before he turned, though he never went on any mission as dangerous as this. Now things were different. The vampire in him and the Chaos dark made him extremely selfish. He was only doing this so that he didn't get rejected again by him friends. He didn't care about saving the world anymore, which was what this was really about. That and the fact Knuckles was a far better leader then he ever was, being selfless came with the territory. A voice piped up that broke Sonic's thoughts.

"I'm going too!"

It was Tails. Knuckles objected, the kid fox was, in his opinion, too young.

"You need me." He pleaded. Knuckles reluctantly agreed, Tails' computer skills were second to none. There were indeed going to need him. Then Knuckles smirked, as he realised something.

"What is it?" Tails asked.

"We have a distinct advantage here..." He left the sentence hanging.

"How'd you figure that part out?" Tails frowned. "Against four Eggmans, we have no advantage whatsoever."

"Yes!" Knuckles squealed, grabbing Tails, "But they think those two are dead." Indicating Sonic and Shadow. "They won't be expecting us."

It was brilliant.

It was the smallest of advantages, but against such dangerous foes, that had to take anything they could get. It was settled.

Tomorrow at dust. They would go in. Two immortals, two sapients against four humans and their pet robots. Sonic suspected a fight to the death. Eggman's death rather then his own, again. He had long been fed-up of dying, he didn't enjoy it. But for the first time since he turned, he properly feared for his friend's lives. He didn't want his sapient friends to go, but he realised that they wouldn't succeed without them. They left the lounge. The meeting was over. They went their separate ways, but remained in the house. They had twenty-four hours before the mission. Time to get their affairs in order and do further detailed planning. Sonic left them to it, he knew his role in the mission and that was enough for him.

He went back to his room. Shadow was already there. Sonic was extremely down. He was scared. Shadow tried everything to cheer him up, even the height of deep, intense passion didn't really lift his spirits. He was caring again, he was just about still capable of it. It was annoying Shadow. He preferred the strong, evil vampire, not the weak, limp, caring hedgehog, Sonic used to be. Sonic growled at him. They argued. He had to stop caring, if he cared too much about Knuckles and Tails' safety, he could put the entire mission in jeopardy. He had a job to do. He had to see it done. Shadow was right, but Sonic wasn't best pleased about it.

Shadow smirked and moved closer to Sonic. He used his Dark Charm on him. Something the black hedgehog knew the vampire wouldn't be able to resist. Sonic swore at him. Shadow was a total git, but Sonic loved him for it. As Sonic sunk his fangs into the Ultimate Lifeform's neck, he felt his worries melt away. Tomorrow, they would go in, tomorrow, they would get his job done, tomorrow, they would have their revenge. The vampire within him smiled in pure evil delight.

Game on!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten – Linked**

The following day, Sonic and Shadow kept mostly to themselves, mainly checking if Sonic could actually carry Shadow. The black hedgehog was extremely heavy, but he managed, just. Dusk couldn't come fast enough for the two immortals, and when the role-call finally came, they were very eager to get going.

After a final check, they moved out into the clear twilight night, the sun slowly sinking on the horizon. Tails' second house was located on the very edge of a desert, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. They had a couple of hours travel at super-speed before they even reached the North Mountains. Sonic and Shadow were not impressed. They hadn't been informed of this, but reluctantly agreed anyway. Shadow carrying Tails and Sonic carrying Knuckles.

Sonic had never carried Knuckles before, but he had regularly carried Tails. But in carrying Knuckles, he could feel the Echidna's incredible Chaos strength. It was equal in power to his own Chaos speed, potentially stronger. He had even more respect for Knuckles now. Having such a powerful Chaos power can get to you, the dangers, the responsibility. It chips at your personality, until you crack. Sonic had cracked several times over his Chaos speed. Sometimes he loved it, other times he hated it. Wanting it gone, have a normal life. He drove people mad over it. Knuckles, however, had never cracked. He had such a level head, it was scary.

But not tonight. He was on Sonic's back. The vampire was going flat out. On the ground. His super-speed purring, not quite running at his top speed. He didn't want to leave Shadow behind. Sonic got the impression that Knuckles had never really traveled at super-speed before.

He was right, theEchidna was extremely nervous. How Sonic kept such superb control traveling at such speeds, Knuckles never knew. He looked down, the ground was just a blur. If they fell, they would both be killed. Sonic often boosted he never fell, and after feeling Sonic's control of his powers, he now believed him.

Finally, the came to the edge of the pine forest that covered the North Mountains. All was quiet. Knuckles called a halt. He and Tails would wait here until they cold be teleported in. He gave Sonic as transponder, it matched his own. All Sonic had to do was place it on the console for the teleporter. It would tell it their exact location and automatically teleport them in. Sonic was impressed. Tails had designedthem. One day that kid fox would give Eggman a run for his money.

"Go." Knuckles indicated to the sky, "And good luck!" He added.

"You too." Sonic replied. They shock hands. It seemed all past digressionshad been forgiven but their relationship had changed. It would never go back to the way it was.

Sonic turned to Shadow, and the black hedgehog climbed into his back. He finally opened his large bat-like vampiric wings. He had been eager to get into air ever since they left. They seemed bigger, had he grown again. He gave his wings a large flap, and took off verticallyinto the sky. He soared over the trees, and headed deeper into the forest. The sun had now set and darkness was setting in. It was pitch dark. Sonic could see perfectly fine. But the pine forest was so vast, he had no idea which direction to travel within it. They was no sign of a giant base from the sky. It could be anywhere. The coordinatesTails have given them, put the headquarters right at the bass of the largest of all the North Mountains, an area quite difficult to get to on foot.

They search for the highest peak and flew towards it. Tails had said also that Shadow would most like see the Chaos Neutral Zone with his abilities. As he suspected it properlyextended high in the sky. Tails was right, Shadow could indeed see it. It looked like a large dome, that seemed to be growing out of the base of the mountain, it incorporated at least a quarter section of the forest. It was vast. Far larger then he glowed in the darkness, a pale blue light given off. The dome was opaque, he couldn'tthrough it. He would have to cross it. They powered forwards.

Sonic's wings were straining under Shadow's weight. He had no idea how much longer he could stay airborne, and was secretly relieved when Shadow asked him to land. The trees beneaththem were very close together. Sonic caught leaves and branches, before landing with a thud. Sonic stretched wings glad to have the weight off them, but was confused, why were they landing here?

Shadow could see why. They just a few feet away from the edge of the dome. Beyond, the Chaos Neutral Zone. It looked like a bright pale blue wall ahead of them. Shadow couldn't see beyond it. He stared at it. Sonic was still confused, he couldn't see, hear or feel anything. He began to wander about, bored. Shadow watched him, passing in and out of the Chaos Neutral Zone as if it was nothing. He was amazed. This was a big deal for him. He took a deep breathe and walked forward. Now for the moment of truth. Could he survive in there? Could his Chaos batteries handle it? In theory, yes, now he had to prove it. He put his hand out and touched the pale blue wall, he felt slightly cool. There was no barrier there, his hand could pass straight through. He pushed his fingers though and felt a sudden wall of extreme cold. He pulled them back. No change.

Satisfied, he took second deep breathe and walked through the wall. The barrier of light was easy enough to pass through. But the wall of extreme cold hit him like a ten tonne truck. It immediately drained of all powers and collapsed to his hands and knees. He could barely breathe. He could see his own breathe in the ice cold. So cold that he began to shiver. He looked around, everywhere was devoid of life. The trees looked somewhat metallic. It was dead. His heaved with every breathe and in great pain as his body was screaming for Chaos. He usually absorbed it from the world around him, but there was nothing to be had. Also he was nearly blind. He eyes, which normally relied on Chaos energy to see, could bare make out the trees ahead of him. The world around him was that dark. His Chaos batteries were now the only thing keeping him alive. They were running down fast. Too fast. Much faster then he has had maybe an hour before they went flat if they didn't find a recharge. He had never felt anything so empty.

Sonic was by his side immediately.

"Whoa! Shadow, are you alright?" He asked. Then he suddenly understood what was going on. "Was that the edge of the Chaos Neutral Zone? I can't see or feel anything." Shadow glared at the vampire, extremely then he realised, his body was quickly getting used to the lack of Chaos. His pain was easing and his vision clearing. He still had his Chaos powers. He had to manage them extremely careful. Absolutely everything now was running off his batteries, and they weren't lasting long. He slowly got to his feet, the world around him was looking and feeling somewhat empty. But it was the cold that really got to him, and he couldn't shake it off. He was still heaving.

Sonic grabbed him and hugged him. Shadow's eyes widened. Warmth! Their shoulders touched skin-to-skin and there was Chaos transferal. Sonic was giving him what he had. Within minutes, he felt so much better, batteries full charged and eager to get going. He was still cold, but that was ignorable.

Suddenly, movement behind them, forced them to hide. A large, dull grey and red, search and destroy robot was on the prowl. Hovering among the trees. Shadowstared at it. He didn't recognise the design. Both Eggman and Gerald had robot designs that were specific the them, designs he knew very well. This was something new. But not that new, the peeling paint and somewhat battered look of the machine, suggested that it was at least thirty to forty years old. This extremely confused Shadow. During that time, he was still in his fifty year status, Sonic wasn't born yet. Gerald Robotnik was long gone, executed. Eggman would have been a mere infant. He's good but not that good. If he didn't build the robot, then who did?

It scanned the surrounding area, Sonic and Shadow ducked. The scan line missed the tops of their heads by a matter of inches. Done, the machine moved off. That was close, too close. They looked at each other, they had to get into the headquarters. Quickly and more importantly, undetected. The black hedgehog again climbed onto the vampire's back and he took off. He shot up into the air, expertly dodging trees and soared back in the sky again. They now had a sense of urgency. The forest beneath them was crawling with robots, and as Sonic was to find out to late, so was the sky.

There was a sudden deep burning looked behind him, his tail was on fire. Lasers. There was a robot on his tail. So much for being discreet. They had been spotted. They were quickly surrounded. Three dozen flying robots. It seems that all these machines were designedto search out life, and destroy it. Shadow was confused. Neither him, as the ultimate lifeform and Sonic, as a vampire, produced much of a heartbeat. But then he realised Sonic body generates Chaos. Which would have made him stick out in this Chaos dead world. If the robots had been designedto detect Chaos. Then they had a problem. As they dodged laser fire, flying side to side, they raced forwards. Eggman's robots could detect the Chaos Emeralds, as they gave off a large amount of highly concentrated energy. But Chaos produced by lifeforms, even what Sonic produced, is considerablysmaller and usually not enough be detected. These robots were extremely sensitiveto Chaos, more sensitivethen Shadow thought possible. Again the varying designs of them were unique to him.

Sonic was flying the fastest he had ever flown. Flapping like crazy, twisting and turning, left and right, laser fire grazing his tips of his wings and legs. But it wasn't fast enough. Sonic was cursing. He didn't have his super-speed in his wings, and he really needed it right now. The pine forest when on forever ahead of them. He'd thought of running through it, but each direction looked the same, and the trees were were very close together. It just wouldn't work. The laser fire kept coming. They had to fight back. They had only one weapon. Shadow began throwing Chaos Spears back at them. That was incrediblydangerous. Each spear drained his Chaos batteries by a quarter. They would be drained with three or four shots. They were extremely effective as they destroyed a robot in a single shot. He never missed, but Sonic was worried. He could feel the sudden drain in his internal power with every spear. Sonic grabbed him as he nearly keeled over.

"Grab onto me?" He shouted. Shadow nearly blacking out, understood what he meant. He took of his both gloves and stuff them into his quills. He grabbed the back of both Sonic's shoulders. They touched. Sonic's eyes went wide. There was instant transferal of Chaos but this was different. He could feel Shadow through the link, which had never happened before. Shadow felt this too. He could feel Sonic in return. Their bond was strong. Shadow sat up on Sonic's back, feeling so much better but looking at his wings. He could feel them, their power, or rather lack of it. They needed super-speed and Sonic's was well and truly glued to his feet. It couldn't be moved, despite their best efforts. If Sonic's super-speed couldn't be used, then maybe Shadow's could.

Sonic was trying to fly towards the centre of the Chaos Neutral Zone, but area was so vast with robot, lasers, and now gunfire from the ground. Their progress and they hadn't gotten anywhere. He was still getting hit, grazing rather badly. Sonic was struggling. He felt a huge surge in energy from Shadow. Sonic panicked. Shadow couldn't afford to do this, not in the Chaos Neutral Zone.

"Don't." Shadow hissed in his ear, feeling the panic. "Use my power, the speed, in your wings, we need it." he could barely talk for the concentration. If they shared the Chaos, they could do this. Sonic understood, he was right, without the speed, they wouldn't survive out here. It would be a matter of time before the Eggmans showed up. They must have known they were here by now. They would be shot down for sure. Now, linked together, they had far more energy and power then before, but how long would it last in this Chaos dead world?

Sonic dived to avoid two arrow-shaped killing machines speeding in his direction. He accepted Shadow's power and sent it to his wings. The power was extraordinary, like liquid 's super-speed was very different to his own, less physical, more Chaotic. Once the power was transferred, Sonic knew what to do, He was born for this.

Sonic's wings skimmed the top of the trees and then he shot upwards, finally at speeds he was more used to on the ground. This speed was different, more efficient then his own. Quickly realising he didn't need to flap his wings as often as he initially thought. At least half a dozen robots dived towards their position. Sonic was forced to fold his wings and slip through the extremely narrow gaps between them. Shadow flattened his body against Sonic's back to accommodate. They passed though with millimetres to spare. Shadow was now an amazing rider, until the link was established, he was fairly clunky and somewhat awkward, but now, he was able to move from side to side perfectly with each of the vampire's movements. Shadow could now read Sonic's instincts perfectly.

The ascendedto near the top of the Chaos Neutral Zone, and soared for moment, as the robots tried to catch up. They were now able to run rings around them, dodging laser and gun fire with ease. Shadow leaned forwards slightly, indicatingfor Sonic to speed towards the centre of the Chaos Neutral Zone. He could feel the black hedgehog's will through the link, it was so strong, that he nervouslycouldn't help but obey. He sped forwards, ducking and diving gunfire as he went. The pine forest now rushed beneath them, until a large expanse of grey suddenly appeared below them. They had finally found the base. Despite its size, it was extremely well hidden in amongstthe trees at the foot of the mountain. Tails was right, the only way to find it was from the air. The robots were still on their tail, following their Chaos signature. Sirenswere beginning to go off in the base. It was simply a matter of time before the four Eggmans came out to play on their pet robots. From previous experience, they knew they wouldn't stand a chance out in the open against them, they needed to play hide and seek with them, pick them one by one, to win.

They had to get into the base fast. The Chaos within the building would hide them. Sonic dived towards to the roof of the building, but underestimated the angle as he was shot at from one of a numerous roof turrets. His leg was bleeding was he crashed landed, collapsing onto the ground, throwing Shadow from his back. The black hedgehog rolled out onto his feet, and looked around. The roof was solid metal, there were no windows anywhere. No points of entrance.

Then suddenly, the building then began to shake, they were coming for them. Shadow realised that if the four Eggmans were coming out, then they had a chance to get in though the same route. He looked around the roof for the potential opening. He had no idea. He didn't know this base, its design was completely unknown to him. Eggman normally built his bases to one of a half a dozen designs, all of which he knew. But not this. Gun turrets all over the roof were firing at them, as well as the robots above. Shadow was getting fed up of being shot at, and his was running low on energy, the Chaos Neutral Zone was taking his toll on him. He had Sonic, who was now on his feet, limping, dodging gunfire himself. He looked tired. The link had drained them both. They had found it's limit. It wouldn't be long before one of them collapsed. Sonic had given everything he had. Shadow was extremely grateful, they wouldn't have made this far if he hadn't. But Sonic was now getting hungry. The injuryto his leg not helping. The Chaos Neutral Zone had slowly been exhaustingfor bothof them, chipping at their was really struggling.

Shadow ran over and grabbed him.

"Stay with me!" He panted.

The shaking was getting worse. Then a klaxonwent off. Sonic and Shadow screamed clasping their ears. A hundred and eighty decibels of pure sound that was deafening. Both hedgehogs collapsed to their knees. Unable to dodge the gunfire, they were now both getting wriggledwith bullets and burned with lasers. They couldn't stay here but they couldn't move either, the noise was too much. Their ears were ringing. There was blood everywhere. Shadow looked around, Sonic was on lying face down on the roof, covered in blood, barely were loosing, again.

'No' thought Shadow, he couldn't go through the humiliationagain.

Then it happened. The roof beneath them. It opened. Completely without warning.

They fell.

Into the darkest depths of this unknown building.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven – Dubbed**

Through the void they fell. An open expanse of cavern. A hanger. Brightly lit. They landed hard on something metal, Something moving. Something large, silvery, moving through the air. They slide off. Air rushed past them before they hit the ground, extremely heavily. Shadow, still conscious was able to roll to the shadows as he watched the four ginormous robots crawl and fly out of the large circular opening they just fell through. Ironic they had crash landed on the opening. Shadow felt so stupid. He hadn't seen it for looking. He didn't checked beneath his feet. Spotlights searched across the floor of the hanger towards where they were. Now was not the time for more bravery. They were in no state to fight. They had to flee and hope they weren't seen.

Shadow realised that up to now they hadn't been. Luckily. None of the Eggmans saw them fall. But the spotlights would, if they didn't move soon. Shadow was just about able to walk and got to his feet. But Sonic was down. He grabbed the vampire and pulled him to the edge of the hanger. Into the shadows. The spotlights missed them, just. The wall of the hanger was warm to the touch. Extremely warm. Shadow's body went mad. There was Chaos the other side. They had to find a way through. Sonic was drifting in and out of consciousness. Shadow was forced to carry him. He realised if he could get into the building, into the Chaos, he could heal himself, providing blood for the vampire. Healing his beloved.

Shadow looked down at Sonic, the fall had knocked him out but he was still breathing. They had linked. It was more then bonding, Shadow had felt inside Sonic's head, this thoughts, even his powers. Shadow had to admit, were far more volatilethis his own. Likewise, Sonic the other way. How had it happened? Could it have been the heat of the battle? Would they be able to repeat the process? Shadow had no idea. Thinking about it, he had heard of something similar, the ability to read a person thoughts through their Chaos. But it was just a theory, there has been no case recorded of someone actually having the ability. But Sonic and Shadow were different, and it seemed the normal rules of Chaos just didn't apply to them. Shadow was more convinced then ever now that he and the vampire were meant for each other.

If they survived!

All four robots and riders left on the hunt for the intruders, and the doors to the hanger closed behind them, plunging them into darkness. They had indeed not been seen. Relief came over Shadow, but then extreme worry as they were still in the Chaos Neutral Zone. The hanger held no Chaos. His batteries were now running on empty. He had a matter of minutes before he went down himself and possibly never rise again. There has to be a door out of here somewhere.

With Sonic in his arms, he slid along the wall. His Chaos batteries now empty, he was loosing his night-vision in the darkness. He now had to rely on touch. Panic began to set in as the last of his energy began to leave him, as Sonic was feeling heavier by the second. Sinking under the weight, and nearly blind, he could hear a faint hum a few feet ahead of him. Shadow instantly regonised it and his heart lifted.

A force field. A force field covering...a door. Shadow was sure if they passed through the force field, the base security would know they were here. Apart from the Eggmans, Shadow was sure they were the only organic lifeforms left in the building. But he didn't care, he had to make it. Once through the force field and in the Chaos, he would get his strength back and outrun any security measures. With a final burst of energy, he ran for the door.

The force field was bright pink against the darkness and temporarily blinded him. But he didn't care. It was now or never as he had a matter of seconds before blacking out completely himself. He plunged through the force field. Then everything happened.

Shadow hit the ground hard on his side with the vampire landing on top. He immediately covered his ears. The klaxon was back. Lights flashing, sirens whaling. Yes, security knew they were there. Shadow gritted his teeth in an attemptto block out the sound as he quickly realised that his energy was coming back to him, and fast. So fast, in fact, that his Chaos batteries would be fully recharged in a matter of minutes. Shadow noticed this, but he didn't have minutes to figure out how this was even possible. It must be artificialChaos. He was just extremely grateful. He had to move, now, otherwise the security robots would be on him.

With his ears ringing and in extreme pain, he grabbed his beloved and ran. Down brightly lit corridors and doors. None of which Shadow regonised. He didn't know this place. They were in, they had a mission, but with Sonic still down, but slowing coming round from the noise. But all that was on the black hedgehog's mind was somewhere to hide. Shadow heard a crackling of the radio, it was Knuckles and Tails sounding very worried. He hadn't heard the radio until now. The Chaos Neutral Zone must have blocked out all communications. He didn't care, right now. Sonic was his main concern. Twisting and turning down one corridor and then the next, all looking identical, Shadow, now fully recharged, was getting lost.

He spotted a grey door ajar and ran for it. It was a pitch black storage room, empty. Shadow slammed the door behind him. Perfect. Somewhere to hide. This will do, for now. The darkness was no problem for Shadow, his night-vision could see. He lay his beloved on the ground. There was just about enough room. He was stirring slightly. The klaxon was still sounding, but it now seemed distant. Shadow gently shook the vampire.

"Sonic?" He whispered.

No was worried. He sat the vampire up.

"C'mon, my sweet." He hissed. "You need to drink." Shadow put his wrist to Sonic mouth. The vampire eye's were opening and closing, he was still drifting in and out of consciousness. He didn't take it. He was to far gone. Shadow realised what he had to do. He had to hook Sonic's vampiric instincts to get him to drink, and there was only one thing that could do it. The strong smell of fresh blood. The faint smell of it in his wrist wasn't enough. Shadow looked down at it. He had never cut himself on purpose before. He felt a little nervous. He did have claws in his hands but he didn't know how the access them. This meant biting his own wrist. The thought turned his stomach. But Sonic needed to drink, this was the only way.

Shadow pulls his glove down his hand, and with a deep breathe, biting his own wrist, hard. The pain was incredibly sharp and excruciating. He felt something liquid on his tongue. It was warm and incredibly sweet. Shadow felt his own deep vampiric instincts come to the surface again as he relished in the flavour of his own blood. He temporarily lost himself in the taste. His eyes rolled back into in head. A clatter and a bang from a robot outside the door, snapped Shadow out of his trance. Feeling shaken and somewhat embarrassed, he quickly put his bleeding wrist to Sonic's mouth. He stared down at his own blood. He'd never really seen it this up close before. It was vivid bright red and glowing brightly as if it had a light source all its own. Its strong intensely sweet smell quickly caught Sonic's attention. Before Shadow could stop him, the vampire had grabbed the black hedgehog's hand and dug his long fangs deep into his wrist.

It hurt. A lot. Shadow swore but resisted the urge to yank his now extremely painful wrist from Sonic's hands. His love for the vampire was stronger then that. Why Sonic biting him was pleasurable sometimes and excruciating painful others, he never understood. Now it was painful, extremely painful but he knew his beloved needed to feed. Shadow gritted his teeth in pain, trying desperately not to scream as Sonic gnawed on his wrist with his fangs trying to get more blood. Shadow could hear scout robots passing them in the corridor outside the door. They had to stay quiet. Shadow had been created with a extremely high pain tolerancebut this had been seriously pushing it. It was his compassion and love for Sonic that was stopping him from completely loosing his temper, which he would have normally done by now.

Sonic drank and drank, digging his fangs deeper and deeper, the pain worsening, for several minutes, but to Shadow, it felt like an age. Shadow felt himself weakening, Sonic was over-draining him. But he didn't care. He just wanted his beloved back.

Finally Sonic let go.

They split apart with some force. Shadow shaking violently in pain and Sonic rolling on the floor. The energy surging through his veins overwhelming his system. He growledloudly, forcing Shadow to grab and silence him. Sonic frowned and only when they both heard another scout robot pass by the door, did the vampire realised where he was. He quickly came to his senses, faster then usual, remembering the urgency.

"We made it!" He whispered to Shadow. They were inside the base.

"Barely." The black hedgehog spat back. He was on his feet, rubbing his wrist. It had healed but was still very painful. He continued, sounding urgent. "We need to find that teleporter." Shadow was keen to move on and get some distance between him and his temporary lose of control, when he bit his wrist. He'd thought his vampiric instincts was long gone, but they were still within him. Still haunting him. Maybe he would never get rid. It had freaked him out that they had gone nuts when they tasted blood, especially his own. But he shouldn't be that surprised, Sonic's vampiric instincts go mad over blood, why shouldn't his own? Sonic got to his feet, grabbing Shadow's hand.

"Which way?" he asked. That was when Shadow realised he didn't know. He didn't know the base at all, and reluctantlyadmitted it to Sonic. He shrugged in thought.

"We split up." He suggested. Sonic frowned.

"But we only have one transponder." He objected. Shadow cut across him.

"You take it. I can hack the system if I find the teleporter before you do."

Sonic huffed. It didn't like being put down by Shadow but the black hedgehog did have a point. When it came to computer and hacking abilities, Shadow was extremely good, whose skills were only beaten by Tails. Sonic eventually agreed. He took the transponder and as soon as the coast was clear, ran out into the corridors of the base, Shadow in the opposite direction. They had a teleporter to find.

Corner after corner, corridor and corridor, they searched. But the more they searched, the more lost they got. There was no point of reference, no windows or large rooms such as the hanger, control room or storage room the tell them in the base where they were. This was frustrating Shadow, he was getting more and more angry in his failure to find the main Control Room. There was a rumbling sound and a slight shake of the whole building, the four Eggmans were now back in the base, having failed to find them outside. There was a crackle on the radio.

"Shadow?" It hissed. It was Knuckles. He sounded extremely panicky. "What's going on?" Shadow slide to a halt in response.

"We're in!" He hissed to the radio. "Apologies for the delay. We barely made it. The base was extremely heavily guarded. We had to recuperateand recharge." There were some relief in Knuckles' voice.

"We've just seen the four Eggmans come out looking for you. They have just returned to the base." He stammered. It sounded like he and Tails had had to hide from them.

"We missed them, just." Shadow hissed, sounding somewhat impatient. "Is Tails there?" A small, frightened voice answered.

"What is it?" Tails stammered. Shadow had been forced to get moving again, to keep a scout robot off his tail.

"I need to find the Control Room of this place." He spat. He was on the verge of loosing his temper out of sheer frustration. "Any ideas?"

Tails whimpered.

"I don't know." Shadow growled. Very unhelpful.

"But." The fox added, gained some confidence. "On the thermal imaging photos of the base, I saw an extremely large heat source towards the north."

Shadow stopped.

"Hope that helps." Tails said unnervingly. Shadow gave his thanks down the radio. It was better then nothing. In fact, it was a direction to head in. As for traveling north. He had a built in compassand had no problem traveling north in the enormous base. He was running on a high. The artificial Chaos that surrounded him was so concentrated, he felt permanently drunk. But it also somewhat blinding him. He usually saw Chaos as light in various shades and colours, surrounding everyday objects. But this Chaos was shining back at him so brightly, he could barely see the world around him. Thankfully, he was somewhat used to it having hung around Sonic for many years. But it all completely confused Shadow. How was this artificial Chaos being generated? He didn't belief it possible, let alone how it was done. He was now getting more and more convinced that this technology, in fact, the whole base, was not the work of Eggman. But of someone else. But who?

As he headed towards the heat source. He was completely blinded by the large quantity of Chaos coming from one particular doorway. So much so, that he didn't see Sonic coming in the other direction and crashed into him. Both landing in a big heap on the floor. Sonic must have found him out of sheer dumb luck, and that really annoyed Shadow.

"Hey!" Sonic squealed, speeding round the corner. "Where did you come from?" He added but Shadow was squinting very badly. Sonic grabbed him and pulled him to his feet.

"You alright?" He asked.

Shadow was struggling. The light from the room was extremely bright. He could barely see He pointed to the door.

"That way." He hissed. Sonic looked confused. He could feel heat from the door but nothing more. He just looked like an ordinarydoor to him, just like all the others. He couldn't see anything different. There were strange sounds the other side of the door, but they indicated to Sonic that it was the boiler room. Shadow knew that a simple boiler room does not produce that much Chaos. Shadow glared at Sonic, and headed for the door, and opened it. To their surprise, it was unlocked. But they couldn't stay here, they would be found by the robot scout petrol, which they had managed to avoid up to now.

Through the door, they entered a surprisinglydark, small room, surrounded by black tinted windows. The Control Room. A tiny room in comparison to the rest of the base. The bright Chaos temporarily disappeared as Shadow entered the room. It seemed the tinted windows were able to completely block the concentrated Chaos he could sense beyond. That shouldn't have been even possible. No man-made material could completely block Chaos, the energy went as it pleased. Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. This entire base was making less and less sense the more they travelled through it. They had both agreed that this was NOT Eggman's base, or at least he didn't build it. But he did somewhat reside in it. So, whose was it?

Shadow ran to the console chair and began to search the computer, determined to find out. To his complete surprise, it was not password protected. It seemed the owner had not expected to be invaded by intruders so hadn't bothered to lock it. Shadow quickly realised that he was way out of his operating system, directories and files were setup and written in a language that he had never heard of before. He looked through the system, but had no idea what he was looking at, but somehow realising that the large cylinder device behind them was a teleporter.

Shadow grabbed the transponder off Sonic and dumped it onto the device, in the hope that the two would talk to each other. He couldn't be bothered to hack it. Plus it would have taken to long. There were intense beeps and whirringfrom the transponder as the teleporter come to life. Within minutes, Knuckles and Tails had joined them in the room, both of them very surprised on how small it was. Four sapients in the small Control Room, made it extremely crowded. The fox and the echidna were glad to be in the base, they had not enjoyed the waiting game.

"Well." Tails grinned. "This is friendly." Shadow growled, it wasn't funny. Knuckles cut across him.

"Right, now we're in, we need to set the charges." He frowned, as he looked around. "What's the other side of those windows?"

"No idea." spat Shadow. "I searched to computer, but I don't understand the system." They all looked at him. Shadow was extremely good with computers. Tails shuffled past them to the console chair to try for himself, and got nowhere. Shadow slide past Sonic towards one of the windows, pressing his nose against it, trying to see through. Nothing. He sighed.

"There's something down there, something big." He couldn't shake the feeling that they were in a small room in the top corner of an extremely large hanger. Knuckles sighed.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"It's not Eggman's, that for sure." Sonic piped up.

They all looked at each other. The room getting even more cramped. Shadow decided to leave. He had just spotted a door behind the transporter, and made his way towards it, pushing the others out of the way. He was getting impatient and desperately wanted to solve this mystery. Sonic grinned at the other two.

"I'll go with him." He sighed.

"Fine." Knuckles spat. Shadow had elbowed him in the side to get him to move. "We'll stay here and work with the computer."

With that they left. Through the door, it lead to a staircase, a dark, long, cold, hard, metallic staircase. It seemed to go down forever. Finally, they reached a door. Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. Even Sonic could feel the concentrated Chaos now, it was that strong. Shadow was knew he would be blinded as soon as the door was opened. Sonic could feel it and decided to take a stand against the black hedgehog.

"You stay here." He said sternly. Shadow growled in objection. But Sonic continued.

"There is no point being blinded if there is nothing to see in there. I will come back you if there is." Shadow stared. The vampire had a point. Finally and reluctantly, Shadow agreed and Sonic went through the door, alone.

It did indeed opened out onto a extremely large hanger. The largest hanger Sonic had ever seen, and it was full. There was rows and rows of pods, as far as the eye could see. Large glass pods, standing several metres off the ground, filled with some kind of liquid. A creature within. Sonic couldn't see from the ground what the creature was the pods, but as he moved among them. The was an impatient knocking from behind him.

Shadow.

Sonic went back for him. He let him in. Shadow was blinded by the Chaos light created by the pods, and it took him some time for his eyes to get used to brightness. When he finally could see. He swore very loudly in absolute horror. Sonic was at his side, confused. The vampire had no idea what these pods were, but Shadow did.

Cloning.

Shadow's initial suspicions were correct but this was cloning on a scale that he had never seen before. It was massive. He ran down the rows, between the pods, trying to figure out who the poor creature was being replicated. All of the pods were completely sealed units, there was no means of accessing them on an individual basis, he needed the main computer. This explained everything. Cloning on this scale explained the large quantity of Chaos energy in the hanger, all produced by the clones. They generated enough Chaos to power the entire building, and as for the Chaos Neutral Zone, to remove the Chaos seemed possible with the correct use of materials, force fields and filters.

"What is this? Whats going on?" Sonic asked, struggling to keep up with Shadow. No answer. Shadow's mind was swimming, set on solving this. Sonic was getting frustrated, he loved Shadow but there were times when he just could hit him, especially for ignoring him. Then he spotted something.

"Hey, whats that?" He asked, pointing. They both looked. There seemed to be a raised platform with steps leading up to it. On the platform, there seemed to be a large device with wires and tubes coming in and out of it. There seemed to be someone in a machine. A human.

The hedgehogs ran towards the machine. The human within looked dead, and somewhat glanced behind him, and swore. Shadow turned and stared. They now had a view of the pods from above and could see the creatures within. It was a human, large, fat, ugly and all sporting a long ginger was Eggman. There were hundreds of pods, maybe even thousands. Sonic gulped. He turned his head in horror to the machine next to him. The human with was surrounded by tubing. The machine controlled all of his vital signs. This was the original Eggman.

Shadow jaw had dropped.

"Its a Ghost Dubbing Device!" He had gasped. He now understood what the word 'ghost' on the directory was referring to.

"A what?" Sonic asked, utterly dumbfounded.

"But that's pure science fiction." Shadow had continued. He was well read, and had come across such devices in various novels. He completely ignored Sonic. The vampire was now extremely frustrated and grabbed Shadow.

"What are you talking about?" He spat.

Shadow's mind was completely blown, he could barely speak. He had read about this in science fiction novels and books, this shouldn't have been possible. Sonic roared at Shadow, he was getting nowhere with the black hedgehog.

Then Sonic saw movement in the device, the original Eggman seemed to be alive. He dived at the device and pulled at it. Shadow was confused.

"He's alive!" Sonic gasped. Shadow eyes widened and helped him remove the original Eggman from the device. He was shirtless and as the hedgehogs place him on the floor, barely breathing. His body was badly withered, skinny in places, and he had aged well beyond his years, compared to the clones that surrounded them.

How long had he been in the device?

His breathing sounded horse, quietly growling. He moved slowing as he come round, and opened one of his eyes. It fell on Sonic. Eggman laughed. It was extremely cold and very cracked.

"Oh...the irony." He glared at them. His smile was cruel.

Shadow grabbed Eggman by the throat. His patients had long since disappeared, his temper flaring. Eggman seemed surprised to see another hedgehog there.

"Who are you?" He asked. His flat tone indicated that he had never seen Shadow before.

This broke Shadow's temper. Sonic grabbed the black hedgehog, before he did anything.

"You don't know!" Sonic replied. Eggman shook his head.

"Should I?" He spat. "The last time I saw you, you were just a punk little kid I just couldn't seem to kill."

Sonic smirked, but Shadow let go of Eggman throat and backed off in complete disbelieve. Sonic stared at his beloved but Eggman continued.

"It was because I couldn't kill you that I refurbishedthis place. I took my father's, Julian Robotnik's base and technology, and used it on myself. If I couldn't beat you, I'd join you. It was the nearest thing I could create to immortality, which, you little git, seemed to have." Eggman was glaring at Sonic intently.

It was a lot of information for the hedgehogs to take in. So the base belonged to Eggman's father, Julian Robotnik. It was he who developed the cloning technology. But neither Sonic or Shadow had never heard of him, didn't even know of his didn't know what to think but he noticed Shadow smirking at that statement. The disbelief of Eggman not knowing him, temporarilybroken.

"I'm surprised to didn't look to Gerald." He hissed. Eggman's eyes widened.

"How do know my grandfather?" He asked in confusion. Both hedgehogs laughed evilly. It was the mother of all questions to ask the black hedgehog. Sonic wondered how Shadow was going to take it. He watched him eagerly.

Shadow slithered towards Eggman.

"I'm the Ultimate Lifeform!" He said coldly and simply. Eggman went white.

"Thats impossible." He stammered. He was frightened. "Your saying that Gerald succeeded in creating the Ultimate Lifeform." But Sonic cut across him.

"Duh. Eggman. Yes. Your looking at him." Sonic cried, pointing at Shadow.

Eggman continued in disbelief.

"But I was led to belief that Gerald was executed, the ARK destroyed, and the project failed." Shadow growled loudly.

"That did happen." He spat. "But after the project succeeded. After..." he paused. "Maria was killed."

"She was killed? She didn't die because the project failed." Eggman gasped. Shadow stared at him.

Did he not know anything?

"No." Shadow spat. "She was murdered."

Eggman went silent. He really didn't know. He looked at Shadow.

"Grandfather created the Ultimate Lifeform as a host for the Cure. The Ultimate Cure. Maria was ill, dying and there was no cure for her aliments. So he created one. The fact that your still here, if you are Ultimate Lifeform, and she isn't, then you must still process the cure within you."

Shadow stared, he had no knowledge of this. Gerald's notes on the Ark made no mention of this. He knew that Gerald had tried to create a cure for Maria but he didn't know that he was the host for it. The very reason why he was created in the first place. Him, created to save one girl. Not to save the world, or to destroy it, but to save one girl. Shadow smirked at that. It was utterly ironic.

Eggman was staring at Sonic. He was still lying where the hedgehogs had put him. His muscle wastage was so bad he couldn't move.

"You called me 'Eggman'. What is that?" He spat. "My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik." The hedgehogs looked at each other, Sonic raised an eyebrow.

How long had he been in that machine? He didn't change his name from Dr. Ivo Robotnik to Dr Eggman until Sonic was a least eleven years old, but he was giving the impression that he had been the machine for far longer then that.

"How long have you been in that thing?" Sonic smirked.

"Long enough to have taken you down by now." Ivo spat in return.

"I had help." Sonic hissed, indicating towards Shadow. "You been that machine for ten years at least." Ivo laughed at Sonic.

"I thought you had grown a bit." But Shadow lost his temper. He swore very loudly.

"Are you telling me that we have been dealing with Eggman clones for the last ten years." He was fuming.

"You've got to admit, Shadow, its good. It got him out of fighting." This statement didn't help. Shadow lost it.

"I bowed down to him, I worked for him, I obeyed him. A god dam clone."

It seemed that Eggman didn't exist, he had never existed. He had been created by Dr. Ivo Robotnik using his father's technology as a series of clones of himself who seemed to have created a separateidentity. As one clone downloads its lifeforce to the next upon death, the next grows further and further away from the original. That was what got to Shadow. He felt completely conned.

Time to get his vengeancenow, perhaps. But his thoughts were broken when they were joined by Knuckles and Tails, who must have heard him shouting and followed them. They were in complete disbelief as they arrived, but Tails automatically checked Ivo, the medic in him coming out.

"He's dying." He said simply. "It seemed that device has killed him." Looking at the machine, the hedgehogs had pulled him from. Shadow was smirking. Vengeancealready dealt. Ivo was dying from his own scheme. That was enough for him. All they have to do next his blow up the base and job done. He didn't care about the clones. He had snorted at Tails' comment. They are looked at him. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Thats a Ghost Dubbing Device." He said again. Confused replied to his comment. He continuedirritated. "A Ghost Dubbing Device is a machine that allows the mind and soul of an original specimen to be completely and successfully copied and placed into a clone. But..." Shadow's smirk widened. "It kills the original specimen. 'Ghost' is just another word for soul."

"How do you know that?" Knuckles spat.

"I read!" Shadow hissed, but was cut across by Ivo. He sighed.

"Father didn't tell me that. He helped me set this whole thing up just before he died. He too was dying from this device, I know that now. His mind had been copied several times, which is what killed him alright, but for me, only once was needed, hence I survived, but no one came to release me. The clones were designedto do that but still no one came. They were also designed to download the mind and soul from one clone to the next upon their death, triggering the release of the next clone."

"There's a glitch in your system." Knuckles spat. Ivo looked at him.

"There are four Eggman clones out there, not just one." Knuckles growled at Ivo. "They're here." He added. The human smirked.

"That's part of the programming. If that was to happen and more then one clone were accidentallyrelease upon the death of the previous. Then they were to return here fix the problem, then destroy each other until one is victorious." He paused. "Then destroy you." He turned to Sonic at the last sentence. Sonic raised an eyebrow. It was an extremely brutal way of doing things. He continued.

"You had to have been an immortal of some sort having physically watched you regenerate as a child, but I never figured out how."

So Ivo didn't know, but Eggman may have done. Or at least the Eggman that was involved when Sonic got stuck to lightning did. But it was obviousthat that clone died when the base exploded. Did the information get passed on? Sonic had no way of knowing. Sonic was extremely tempted to bare is fangs at Ivo, to tell all but a glance from Shadow told him that wasn't a wise move. You never volunteer information to a Robotnik, it will come back to bite you. Literally. Sonic grinned inanely.

"Wouldn't four Eggmans be better at destroying me then just one." He thought. Shadow grabbed him.

"Thats not now you destroy an immortal, besides you would just regenerate." Shadow spat. Sonic had done that, a lot. The black hedgehog continued. "A recurring enemy that can not be defeated is more soul destroying to an immortal then any army." He said.

Ivo was impressed at Shadow.

"I like you, Hedgehog." He hissed coldly.

"So do your clones." Shadow smirked in return. But he had had enough. Time to blow the base. Destroy the place. No more clones. No more Eggman. The building had been shaking periodically, as the Eggmans had been trying to destroy each other. Shadow started placing charges about the hanger. Ivo noticed and began to panic. Trying to move but failing.

"No." He cried. "You can't destroy the base."

Shadow glared at him.

"Watch me!" He said extremely coldly.

Tails ran and tried to stop Shadow. The black hedgehog threw him off.

"Tails?" Sonic asked. Ivo cut in, smirking.

"You can't destroy the base. The father planted four nuclearwarheads beneath the building."

"Six." Tails cried, cutting across. "I saw their schematicsin the Control Room."

Ivo stared at him.

"Impressive, Fox." He spat. "Not many people can understand my father's uniqueoperating system. Something even I couldn't do." He paused. "Interesting. He told me there were only four down there." He laughed. They all looked at Tails confused. What did he mean? He answered, extremely scared.

"If we blow the base, we will activate the nuclearwarheads, which will not only destroy the base but the whole North Mountain area. There are dormant volcanos in the North Mountain range. The explosion will cause the biggest volcanic eruption in Mobious' history. Large enough to cause a worldwide atmosphericdisaster. Millions will die."

Ivo laughed. Impressive.

"Spot on, kid." He grinned. "Why do you think my father picked this location." The human coughed and sputtered. He didn't have long. He may die but his creation, the Eggman, would live on There was nothing these sapients could do about it. The shaking and rumbling of the building got closer. Robots were descending onto the hanger. It seems that there was a winner from the Eggman fight and now he was coming for them.

Ivo glared at them. His eyes narrowed.

"You loose." He hissed.

Shadow lost his temper at him. This time completely and utterly. Before anyone could stop him, he walked up to Ivo and stuck him hard across the neck. The human stopped moving, and never spoke again. Knuckles and Tails were shocked, they had never seen Shadow kill before, but Sonic was used to it. He had been on far too many assassination missions with the black hedgehog to be bothered by it anymore plus the vampire part of him was loving it.

The rumbling continued, then all of a sudden, all of the door burst open and robots piled into hanger. Straight towards them. Hundreds of them. Outnumbered and outgunned. Evil laughter could be heard as the winning Eggman clone knew he had trapped them. Shadow was swearing, he was going to loose to Eggman, again. But this time he may be able to get out. Without having to regenerate in the process. He had a Chaos Emerald on him. He always had a Chaos Emerald on him. With the concentrated Chaos energy in the hanger and the Emerald, he may be able to Chaos Control them out of there. Shadow growled. He hated fleeing, but he didn't have a choice. He knew that he and Sonic could potentially fight their way out, regenerating in the process. But Knuckles and Tails didn't have a chance. He didn't want to risk it. He had never Chaos Controlled more then one person at a time. But now was not the time for complacency. He took Sonic's hand, who quickly realised what Shadow was going to do, grabbing Knuckles and Tails. Shadow realised that this Chaos Control was going to drain him, heavily. He was going to try and teleport through the Chaos Neutral Zone to the outside world.

Sonic had objected but it was their only chance. Shadow held up the Chaos Emerald.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Blinding light surrounded them. They left the hanger and within seconds, they collapsed on the ground surrounded by trees, breaking apart. Knuckles and Tails were winded but unharmed. Shadow rolled on the ground. He could see the bright pale blue wall of the dome that contained the Chaos Neutral Zone a few feet away. They had made it past the Zone, just. It took every ounce of energy Shadow had to get this far.

He was heavily drained, almost on the verge of it triggering a regeneration in him. But he was getting his energy back and quickly. Shadow frowned and looked around. Sonic was still holding him, his hand wrapped round his wrist, glove off. He was transferring Chaos energy, his large green eyes smiling at him. Shadow loved Sonic for this, giving him everything without even asking.

The sirens from the base were sounding again. Time to leave. Shadow regained enough energy to grab Knuckles and super-speed out of there with Sonic and Tails.

They fled.

They had lost the battle. Again.

Two – Nil to Eggman.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve – Cure**

Back at Tails' House Mark-Two. The house in the desert. Everyone was extremely shaken, reflecting on the past day's events. Shadow's temper was flaring so badly, that Sonic had difficulty controlling him. The others didn't believe their story, and of what Ivo Robotnik had said. In the end, Knuckles gave up. Against Eggman, or the Eggman clones, he couldn't see a solution. He couldn't how they could win. If they successfully killed one Eggman, another would rise and replace him. Just like Eggman couldn't kill Sonic for the same reason.

Stalemate.

But who would break first? Knuckles was on the verge. His thoughts turned to Jet. He had been force to sedate the hawk ever since Tails' first house got destroyed. That was weeks ago, and Knuckles couldn't permanently keep him like that. He needed a cure for him. It was something to concentrate on, took his mind off the despair. He mentioned this to the others.

"Where are we going to find a cure now?" Rouge said in response. "Face it." She added. "He's done for. There's nothing we can do."

Wave was crying, she had been upset since this whole thing started. Sonic stared at Rouge. Was Jet really done for or was there a cure available after all? He looked at Shadow, he was still fuming But Sonic had just about managed to calm him and steer him to the corner of the room. It was something that Ivo mentions back in the base, that he wanted to talk to him about . But now was not the time to discuss it, not in front of everyone. He had to get Shadow alone. He would get his chance soon.

Tails had bought this house or more actually, mansion, cheap as a backup house because it was literally in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a desert. It was well away from his old house and territory, which he sadden to say, he had now given up to Eggman. He dreaded to think what the human would do the area, but that was now none of his concern. Eggman had no idea where they were and wanted to keep it that way, especially now. Tails also bought the house assuming that Sonic would be staying with him, able to provide transport, but in light on recent events, Tails had the feeling the vampire would leave soon. Move in with Shadow on the Ark. It was simply a matter of time. He to, was extremely shaken by recent events so he started on a project of his own, designing some sort of vehicle as he couldn't rely on Sonic anymore.

The tension in the room as driving Sonic mad. He excused himself and pulled Shadow out of the lounge and to their room. Well away from everyone else. Shadow was emotionally is a bad way. Still extremely angry. Feeling completely and utterly betrayed by Eggman being a clone and not a really person, was severely getting to him. Sonic had never seen his beloved like this. Sonic sighed, all that was in the past and this was now. He needed to talk to Shadow in a good mood, and there was only one way to cheer him up. Pleasure. He wasn't interested as first, but Sonic somehow managed to seduce him, using his vampire charm. He had never done that before, never needed to. Shadow always took the lead. Had no idea it would work.

They spent the rest of the day together, in each other's arms, deep, intense passion passing between them, again. Nightfall came, and they were lying in bed, calm, quiet, and in Sonic's case, out of breath.

'Dam, he's good.' he thought. He looked at his beloved. His red crimson eyes sparling and a smirk on the face. The kind of smirk that evilly said 'Yes, he was good and he bloody knew it.' He was in a good mood, finally.

Time to talk.

Sonic cuddled his beloved.

"Shadow?" He whispered. Silence answered. This was usual, but he was listening.

Sonic continued.

"Ivo mentioned that you were created as a cure for Maria. Do you still have it?"

Shadow frowned and stared at the vampire. What was the vampire getting at? He didn't answer.

"The cure? Do you still have it?" Sonic asked again.

"Yes." Shadow hissed in return. Where was this going?

"Would it work on Jet?" The vampire asked.

Shadow's eyes widened. In theory, yes. The cure is incredibly power and could potentially heal anything. Maria was extremely ill, it had to be that strong. But there were consequences, consequences Sonic didn't know about. Plus to use his precious cure on Jet, a hawk he despised, he would rather not.

Their eyes met, as Shadow silence answered Sonic question.

"Shadow, please." Sonic pleaded. Shadow growled and pushed the vampire off of him.

"No." He spat.

The vampire began to cry. Shadow swore, he hated seeing Sonic cry. It emotionally ripped him to pieces.

"Since when do you care?" He hissed, grabbing the vampire.

"I don't." Sonic stammered. "But it's us versus Eggman, we are going to need all the help we can get."

Shadow growled, the vampire was right. They were going to need all the help they could get. From anyone and everyone, friend or foe. Every life was worth fighting for. Sonic's eyes were large, bright green, and glinting. Staring up at Shadow. The black hedgehog was struggling to resist them. He swore again. He just couldn't take it. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his things, took the Chaos Emerald out of his quills and Chaos Controlled out of there, leaving the vampire all alone.

Days went past and there was no sign of Shadow. They tried contacting the Ark numerous times but no answer. Where had he gone? Sonic was really struggling, for two reasons. One, he blamed himself for Shadow leaving and this crucified him, and two, his source of blood was gone. His friends struggled to keep him fed. They bought livestock blood from a local abattoir for him. He just about had enough to keep control. Not to completely lose it and kill everyone in the building. He was permanently hungry and spent most of his time alone, in chains. He volunteered for it. He just didn't trust himself anymore. As he sat there in the dark, his thoughts were on Shadow and how much he loved him and how much he hated himself right now, beating himself up severely for it. This wasn't a way to live

The days turned into weeks and still no sign of Shadow, and more interestingly, no sign of Eggman either. But Tails was keeping an eye of his old territory, Eggman was quietly rebuilding his old base, the one they originally destroyed. Without Shadow, there was nothing they could do to stop him. The black hedgehog was that powerful and had that much influence.

Sonic was sat thinking in the lounge, on the rare day he was let out. The others were there but giving him a wide berth. They didn't trust him alone. Sonic hated this, with Shadow, he could rule the world with his friends by his side, but alone, he was nothing. A bloodthirsty vampire, and nothing more.

There was a bang and a crash coming from the kitchen. A large quantity of Chaos energy appearing out of nowhere. Sonic sensed it and ran. There was only one thing that could create such Chaos energy. Chaos Control.

Shadow!

All thoughts of food disappeared as Sonic entered the kitchen to find Shadow collapsed on the floor. He was in a bad way. His beautifully sleek black first coat was fading to grey fast and his powers were failing him. Sonic rushed to his side. Shadow lay on the floor, fitting and jerking, clucking something in his hand. A small vial of silvery liquid. He gave it to Sonic.

"Whats this?" Sonic questioned.

"The Cure, you idiot." Shadow stammered. He was in great deal of pain.

Sonic stared at the silvery liquid. Knuckles rushed to his side, taking the vial from him. He stared at Shadow. Then he realised.

"Why?" Knuckles asked.

Shadow put his hand up to touch Sonic's cheek. For the first time ever, he smiled.

"Because he asked me too." He hissed. The black hedgehog loved the vampire, more then you could imagine. "Go!" He spat at Knuckles, he didn't know how effective the Cure would be. It needed to be used immediately. Knuckles disappeared to treat Jet.

Rouge come to the other side of Sonic. Shadow's fur coat was now completely grey, white in place. She put her hand on his shoulder.

"He's dying." She said. Sonic looked at her.

"He'll regenerate." He stammered. "Won't he?" He asked. Rouge shook his head.

"Not this time." She said. Sonic's eyes filled with tears. Shadow growled.

"Don't cry." He spat. "I can't bear it when you cry." Sonic's tears kept coming. Shadow's temper flared.

"Enough." He snapped. "No more tears. Not for me. Not ever. I don't deserve them. The Cure was the reason why I was created, it was meant for Maria, but she was killed before it could be used. Now I'm giving it to you. Without the cure, I loose the reason for my existence. Now, I will die." Sonic wailed. He hugged the black hedgehog.

"Please, don't leave me." Shadow rolled his eyes.

"You'll be fine. The managed without me before." Sonic sniffed.

"That was before I knew you."

Shadow growled again, he was loosing his patients.

"Look, this was my choice. I haven't live the best of lives and I have suffered enough. It is time for me to go." He snapped. He turned away from Sonic and closed his eyes. He became still and calm.

Shadow was gone.

Shadow's death affected them all. Especially Knuckles. It only took a few drops of Cure to completely heal Jet and return him back to normal. It was extremely potent. It worked and Shadow sacrificed his life for it. Knuckles gave the Cure to Tails who rushed it to Mobotropolis' County General Hospital so it could be used to heal as many people was possible. Over a hundred lives were saved with the Cure. People were asking after its origins, analysing it, trying to replicate it.

'Good luck with that.' Tails thought, not telling anything.

As to Shadow, Sonic refused to leave his side. He took his death extremely badly. He got very aggressive about it, nearly biting several people. His eyes were glowing red, fangs bared, more hungry then ever before. But his love for Shadow was stronger then that.

Jet came to see him, after his healing. He wanted to see Sonic for himself. Not believing what he was told. Wave was just glad to have him back. He nervously entered the room that they had manage to move Shadow and Sonic to. He was alone. The vampire roared when he saw the hawk. He hated him with every ounce of his being.

"What do you want?" he growled.

The hawk was extremely frightened, he understood now that he had been way out his depth. He had had no memory of what happened, and the last thing he remembered was seeing Sonic in Tails' old house just after the lightning strike.

"I'm sorry." He stammered. "I didn't know any of this would happen."

"Really." Sonic hissed evilly. "Maybe when your that desperate, you might do your research first, before jumping to conclusions." Jet gulped.

"Your a vampire. A real one." He was shaking.

Sonic smirked evilly, leaning towards the Jet, feeding on his fear, licking his fangs.

"I was born this way." He whispered.

Sonic's Chaos dark aura and the fear was to much for Jet, and the hawk ran. Sonic laughed to himself, Shadow would have been proud of him for that one.

Shadow.

The black hedgehog's body was still in his arms on the bed. He was cold and pale. Sonic eye's filled with tears again, yes, Shadow did deserve his tears. No matter what he said. He looked down at his beloved. He would do anything to have him back.

Anything?

He remembered that Shadow had said he his body generated Chaos. He tried to transfer some Chaos to Shadow. Nothing. He cried. Then he had a thought. Maybe he could give him all his Chaos. He remembered back to his studies. There was something more. But it was extreme. A Total Chaos Transferal. Give him everything he had, literally, including his own lifeforce. He didn't need to touch Shadow to do this. He was so desperate to have his beloved back. But he had to decide soon. He was loosing control of his vampire instincts, he was that hungry.

He lay Shadow on the floor and knelt beside him. He had no idea if this would even work. He straighten his back and closed his eyes, pointing his nose to the ceiling, desperately trying to block out his hunger.

'Shadow' He thought. 'Dearest Shadow, beloved Shadow. I give you all my love, my heart and my soul. All the Chaos I have his yours. Please take it.' He took a deep breathe and let go. Of everything. He felt instant peace. A ball of silver light appeared out of his chest and drifted gentle down to Shadow and entered his body. Sonic felt his mind and body drift into darkness as he felt himself collapse on the ground. Happiness filled him as he saw Shadow arch his back, gasp and begin to breathe. Sonic felt himself fall into the blackness and soon all was quiet, but extremely peaceful. He closed his eyes. He had never felt so happy in his life. Down into the depths of the darkness he slide, never to return. The Total Chaos Transferal was successful. Shadow was alive.

Shadow woke with a start. What the hell? He was supposed to die and...stay dead. He sat up to find to Knuckles in the doorway staring at him. He had come to investigate the source of light he had just seen. He felt someone lying across him. It was Sonic.

He swore, loudly. No, no, no, no no, no. Not Sonic, anything but Sonic. The vampire was completely cold in his arms. He was fuming. This wasn't the plan. He was supposed to die, not the vampire. He roared at Knuckles. Why didn't he stop him? Shadow was checking his beloved. How had he done it? How did he resurrect him? He felt no Chaos in the vampire body whatsoever, but he felt somewhat different. He looked within himself and felt Sonic's love. Then it dawned on him, Sonic's Chaos and lifeforce was now within him, keeping him alive. He grabbed the vampire and hugged him. Tears in his eyes. Shadow had no idea the vampire was capable of such power and he gave it all to him.

Knuckles realised the same thing as he came to Shadow's side.

"Total Chaos Transferal!" He gasped. "I didn't think it was possible."

Shadow stared at him. He had heard of it. It was a form of Chaos Sorcery. The ultimate sacrifice. Somebody survived it. Not even an immortal. The Echidna stared.

"How did he know such Magic?" Shadow sniffed.

"He told me he'd studied it to improve his skills with the Chaos Emeralds." He was in disbelieve. He should have seen it, the hint was there. Sonic's knowledge of Chaos Sorcery was far greater then he had realised. But it was to late now. The only reason why he was able to perform such as feat was the fact that his body generated Chaos. It would have been impossible for anyone else. Knuckles sighed.

"He really loved you. Only true love can produce such power." He too was in tears. Shadow didn't answer, he was grieving too badly. He placed the vampire head on his shoulder, for a proper embrace. Then all of a sudden, he felt something. His eyes widened. The smallest of breezes on his neck. Breathe.

Sonic was breathing.

Shadow swore. His heart lifted. Knuckles jumped.

"What is it?" He asked.

"He's alive!" Shadow stammered.

"How?" Knuckles gasped. He was in complete shock.

"Don't know and right now, I don't care." Shadow growled. He was overjoyed but worried. He quickly got to his feet, picking Sonic up and left the room.

The others were in absolute shock to see Shadow alive but Sonic down. Knuckles explained was happened. Shadow didn't listen, he was on a mission. Sonic was alive, but he didn't know how much longer he would last. Sonic needed Chaos energy and a lot of it. Shadow felt very strange. His own Chaos energy now was no longer stored in batteries, but he was now able to absorb it directly into his muscles from the world around him, without it draining him. As for the Cure, it was gone and his body no longer made any more of it. He was no longer bound by it. This now made him even more powerful. But he didn't care, he would give it all back to Sonic in a heartbeat. But he couldn't give it back, he didn't have the power.

Lying Sonic down on a table, he placed the Chaos Emerald he processed on his chest. He saw the Chaos transfer from the Emerald into Sonic. The vampire strengthened, but it wasn't enough. He needed the Chaos Emeralds. All seven of them.

The hunt was on.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen – Emeralds**

Shadow had no idea if the seven Chaos Emeralds would produce enough Chaos to save Sonic. He had to try, even if the others objected. The seven Chaos Emeralds had not been brought together in years and no one knew the locations of them all. Tails was certain that Eggman had three Emeralds and wouldn't give them up easily. Not a problem, as far as Shadow was concerned. He smirked. How convenient. He would go in, kill Eggman, take the Emeralds and leave. Simple. He had never done that before because he still had respect for Eggman. That was long gone, since learning he was a clone. Shadow cared very little for him, now. In fact, he cared very little for anyone except Sonic.

When he learned that Tails had the Chaos Emerald that Sonic stole from him on the Ark, plus another he'd found, he refused to give them to Shadow.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Bringing the seven Emeralds can be extremely dangerous" He questioned. Shadow didn't care.

"Don't push me kid, give them to me." He spat.

"I want Sonic back too." He stammered. "But there has to be another way."

Shadow lost his temper and pulled a gun on Tails.

"There isn't." He hissed. He cocked the weapon..

Knuckles rushed forwards between Tails and Shadow, the gun at his chest. He had seen that look on Shadow before, just before he killed Dr. Ivo Robotnik. He swore at him, then turned to Tails.

"Give him the Emeralds." He spat. He was not liking this one bit. He preferred Sonic alive then Shadow but they were both a handful. Tails obeyed, terrified. Knuckles glared at Shadow.

"But on your head be it. The Emeralds haven't been brought together in years. Whatever happens, leave us out of it." He spat.

Shadow smirked. They had but Knuckles didn't know that, and fair enough. He could live with that. They wanted him out. Fine, but he was taking Sonic with him. He gathered the three Emeralds, and with Sonic in his arms, Chaos Controlled out of there.

Returning to the Ark was a strange feeling for Shadow. The last time he was there, he was in excruciating pain removing the cure from his body. Ignoring all contact calls from the others. Now he was back, with his beloved close to death in his arms, feeling his sacrifice was a complete waste of time. Yes, he saved Jet, maybe others too, but that meant nothing to Shadow. With three Chaos Emeralds, and a further three locations known, there was only one Chaos Emerald missing.

Shadow placed Sonic in the Ark's sickbay. He stroked his forehead. His love for the vampire had multiplied exponentially since the Total Chaos Transferal. Sonic's love for him was that strong. He hooked Sonic up to the medical monitors so he could watch from the Control Room, and left him there. This saddened him but he had a job to do.

Shadow used the Ark to track Eggman down. It wasn't difficult. We was making a lot of fuss rebuilding his base near Tails' old house. There was only one Eggman, the other three had perished. The Eggman with the tarantula was the victor. Shadow could see him strutting about in it. Shadow smirked, killing Eggman on this particular machine would easy. He used the Ark to track down the Chaos signatures of the Emeralds. He found that Eggman was using them in various machines rebuilding the base.

This was too perfect. Shadow smirked. He fully armed himself and grabbed a Chaos Emerald. He left the other two with Sonic, to give him strength. He watched Eggman on the monitors carefully. One perfectly timed Chaos Control, landing behind Eggman on that giant spider, would be perfect. Making killing him very easy. He watched. Timing was everything. Ready...and CHAOS CONTROL.

The flash of blinding light teleported Shadow perfectly to behind Eggman on his pet tarantula. He pulled his gun. Back of Eggman's head. The human had no idea he was there. He fired. The glass of the cockpit cracked, but the the bullet didn't penetrate.

Bullet proof.

Shadow swore. Eggman stared at him and threw him off his machine. He laughed.

"Shadow the Hedgehog!" he sneered. "Trying to kill me, are we?" His voice was ice cold. He looked and smelled very different from Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Shadow hadn't noticed until now. They were now indeed two different people.

He hit the ground hard, but immediately rolled to his feet.

"What is it to you, human." He spat back, in an equally cold voice, pulling a gun on him.

"You know, if you kill me, I will only return even stronger." Eggman hissed. Shadow didn't care, one clone dead, was one less clone to deal with later. He fired. The cockpit cracked, but stayed put. Eggman look a little uncertain, but still cold.

"So you know my secret, Hedgehog. You can't win against me."

Shadow smirked. Maybe, but he could outlive you. Eggman could only exist for as long as the clones survived. Eventually, they will run out, even if it took a hundred years or even longer. He'd be there waiting, and now he was more determined then ever to have his beloved by his side. He didn't want to wait alone. The black hedgehog fired his gun again. Further cracks appeared in the cockpit glass. It wouldn't last much longer. Eggman was getting nervous, Shadow could hear in his voice. This pleased him.

"Where's the vampire?" He leered. So he knew. But Shadow didn't care, he would have found out sooner or later. He didn't answer. Eggman finally lost his patients and attacked Shadow.

Bad move. The black hedgehog used Chaos Control to effortless and instantly move around the human and his pet tarantula, firing bullets at him. Crashing around in panic, Eggman tried everything to get at Shadow, but only now remembered why he never attacked the mighty hedgehog. Not with an Chaos Emerald anyway. Against his teleportation skills, Eggman had got nothing on him. The bullets finally broke through the cockpit's glass wall. Eggman was hit. He knew he was done for, or at least this clone was. Shadow suddenly appeared behind his head. Eggman saw the ice cold crimson eyes of that black hedgehog, an emotionless look on his face. He pulled the trigger. The gun fired. Eggman fell limp and lifeless. He was dead.

One clone down, hundreds, potentially thousands to go. Shadow knew he had his work cut out. He used super-spin to take out the rest of the robots in the base, retrieved the three Chaos Emeralds and returned to the Ark. He was exhausted, leaving carnage behind. Eggman had pushed his teleportation skills to the limit, if he hadn't had killed him when he did, he would have collapsed.

Back on the Ark, he rushed to Sonic's side. He followed the correct procedure to bring the six Chaos Emeralds together, without an explosion. He gave them to Sonic. The vampire did get stronger but it still wasn't enough. He was a Chaos Emerald short. He was getting the suspicion that the seven Chaos Emeralds may not be enough. He needed another source of concentrated Chaos energy. There was Julian Robotnik's base, but Shadow didn't want to go back there, but there was another source. The Master Emerald. The giant green emerald was an enormous source of Chaos energy but only the Echidna knew how to wield it.

It was located on Angel Island, the floating island that moved around Mobious. The Master Emerald kept it aloft. This meant getting past Knuckles, which he didn't fancy, plus he would need all seven Chaos Emeralds to succeed. Shadow looked at Sonic. The vampire was surrounded by the six Chaos Emeralds. The black hedgehog held out his hand and concentrated. The Emeralds lifted off the bed and hovered in the air glowing, bending to Shadow's will. He closed his eyes. He knew that the six Chaos Emeralds could reveal the location of the seventh with the correct manipulation. They gave him a vision. Shadow smirked. Oh, how utterly ironic. He saw the final emerald was deeply buried beneath the ground on...Angel Island. It looked as though it had landed there having fallen from the sky. It would explain why it had not been found until now. The chances of it landing there were incredible low, so low in fact that no one had even thought looking there, considering how much Angel Island moves. Not even him.

So to the floating island. That was where all this was going to end. Sonic whimpering snapped Shadow from his vision. The energy from the Chaos Emeralds was helping but the vampire was slipping, it was now or never.

Shadow took Sonic again in his arms. With the six Chaos Emeralds, he Chaos Controlled, to the base of the alter of the Master Emerald, on Angel Island. This drained him of a lot of energy even with six Chaos Emeralds, because teleporting to a moving location was incredibly difficult. Hence Shadow hardly ever visited Angel Island. He landed on Angel Island to find himself staring into the deep blue eyes of a powerful red Echidna. The last Echidna. Knuckles.

"I knew you would come here." He spat at Shadow. "Especially, after the carnage you left at Eggman's base."

Shadow didn't care. He just growled in return. Knuckles continued. Hissing at Shadow.

"Unable to resist the lureof the Master Emerald."

"I need it." Shadow spat. He looked down at Sonic in his arms, who was barely breathing. He was tired and now desperate. Knuckles noticed this.

"You really love him, don't you." He said, intrigued.

Shadow finally broke. He couldn't hold it together anymore. The love was just to strong.

"He gave me everything. I was supposed to die, not him. I have to bring him back." He growled again.

Knuckles sighed, was this a fight still worth fighting anymore? He wasn't sure, but what Shadow was proposing was incredibly dangerous. The Chaos Emeralds and Master Emeralds had never been used to resurrect a life before. No knew what would happen. It could destroy the planet. Was Sonic's life worth the risk? Knuckles looked at the vampire, and thought. He may have been a bloodthirsty vampire. But before he turned, he had done more to help people around the world then all of them put together. As a vampire, however, death and carnage seemed to follow him wherever he went. He was evil now. Knuckles looked at the bigger picture. They had Eggman clones to deal with, potentially for the rest of their lives. Shadow had succeededthis time, but Knuckles had to admit, he's got lucky. Could the black hedgehog take them down alone? There was one simple answer to that.

No.

They needed Sonic. Vampire or otherwise. Good or evil. They wouldn't survive without him.

No, Knuckles decided, the fight wasn't worth fighting anymore, Sonic's life was worth the risk. He stepped to one side.

"Do you have the Chaos Emeralds?" He enquired.

"Six of them." Shadow said urgently. "The seventh one is here."

"What!" Knuckles spat. "How the hell did it get here?"

"It landed here." Shadow spat impatiently. "Can you get it?" He was eager to climb the stairs of the alter. Knuckles eyes widened.

"Er...Yes." He stammered. "Where is it?"

Shadow gave Knuckles the exact location of the Chaos Emerald as shown in the vision and the Echidna disappeared. He climbed the alter and lay Sonic in front of the Master Emerald. The giant green emerald was glowing slightly and turning slowing in it's stand. The Master Emerald's power was far beyond Shadow. He was fascinatedby it, but knew he could never wield it.

Shadow placed the six Chaos Emeralds around Sonic's body, and it wasn't long before Knuckles returned with the seventh. Shadow wasn't surprised the Echidna was so quick. Shadow was very specific about the emerald's location, plus Knuckles knew Angel Island extremely well.

Shadow added the seventh Chaos Emerald to the others, again following the proper precautions. The Chaos Emeralds were very unstable with each other if they were not properly reintroduced.

They stood back. Sonic was now surrounded by the seven Chaos Emeralds lying in front of the Master Emerald. Sonic's breathing was coming to a halt. They didn't have long. Shadow looked at Knuckles. He was going to need the Echidna the wield the Master Emerald for this was going to work. They nodded.

Shadow silently concentrated on the seven Chaos Emeralds and lifted them off the ground, taking Sonic with them, floating midair. They glowed intently and begins to spin around him. The Chaos energy filled Shadow and he entered Super Form. Glowing gold, he turned the Chaos energy towards Sonic, desperately wishing life to his beloved.

Knuckles raised his hands.

"Here me, Master Emerald, lent me your power." He hollowed. Shadow gave Knuckles a sideways look. No way that should work. It sounded so lame, but as the Master Emerald began to glow brightly in response to the Echidna. Shadow was surprised.

"Please." Knuckles continued. "Give life to our friend." The Master Emerald responded in ernest. Shadow could really feel its power now. All of the emeralds were glowing incredibly brightly now. Knuckles grabbed Shadow.

"You can't control them all alone." He whispered in his ear. "Let me help you." Shadow was surprised but nodded in agreement. He could feel the Echidna's incredible strength. The Chaos energy was building until it finally peaked.

"Now!" Knuckles shouted. Shadow used every ounce of his and the Echidna's strength to push the energy into Sonic. To resurrect him. The entire island was covered is extremely bright light from the resulting explosion. Shadow and Knuckles were blown from the alter, landing hard on the floor. The Echidna was knocked out cold, but alive. Shadow remained conscious, but so heavily drained. He was struggling to stay awake. He watched the light expand from the alter and go around the world. A extremely large amount of Chaos energy was used up in the explosion, but, thankfully, not enough to destroy the planet. It would eventually recover. Shadow watched the alter. Sonic's body was still surrounded by light but the Chaos Emeralds were vibrating violently. He continued watching in horror as the Chaos Emeralds completely drained of their colour and power, turning into large clear crystals. The Master Emerald was fairing better, but not much. It too was vibrating violently, but it didn't loose its power or colour but began to crack all across its surface.

Knuckles came to, just as the Master Emerald shattered into a thousand pieces, flying in all directions. It forced them to duck for cover. The Chaos light dimmed as Sonic was placed safely on the ground.

It was all over.

Shadow and Knuckles got to their feet, they were both alive but extremely shaken. They hadn't destroyed the planet, but they had severely weakened it. They looked at each other. Carnage lay all around them. All of the trees of Angel Island has been flattened. Building destroyed. It was going to take some rebuilding. Knuckles sighed. Then they heard it, movement at the top of the alter.

Sonic!

They both raced to the top of the alter to find the vampire sitting up, looking somewhat pale, extremely confused.

"Hi, guys." He piped up seeing Shadow and Knuckles. "What am I doing here?"

It worked. Sonic was alive. But Shadow was staring at him. He was absolutely overjoyed to have his beloved back, but something was different. Very different. So different, in fact that it was stopping Shadow from grabbing the vampire and embracing him.

"That's a long story." Knuckles sighed, exhausted.

"Do you realise your Master Emerald has broke again." Sonic giggled, pointing to the stand where the mighty emerald once sat. Only a few fragments of the Master Emerald remained.

"I know." Knuckles smiled. "I guess I will have to find the pieces all over again."

There eyes fell on the Chaos Emeralds, they were all completely clear and powerless.

"What happened to them?" Sonic asked. Shadow too had been staring at them.

"I used them to bring you back!" The black hedgehog hissed.

"What!" Sonic exclaimed. He paused. "I died." He didn't believe it. Shadow nodded.

"How did I die?" He asked nervously.

Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other, confused. He didn't know. Knuckles sat beside the vampire.

"What's the last thing you remember?" The Echidna asked calmly.

"Well." Sonic replied. "We had just taken down Eggman after the best Extreme Gear Grand Prix ever." He grinned. "Man. That was a good contest. I won, sticking two fingers up at Jet was the best thing ever."

They looked at each again. He was describing an incident that happened just before he turned. Shadow pulled Knuckles to one side.

"He's back." Knuckles stammered, unable to believe it worked.

"Yes." Shadow spat. "But he is no longer a vampire."

"What!" Knuckles gasped. Shadow shuffled.

"Well, his body is, a vampire and an immortal, but his mind isn't." He paused. "I can see his Chaos aura, it's completely white again, no longer black. I can't feel the vampire instincts within him either. It is as though he'd never turned."

"What? Like he's cured." Knuckles piped up. Shadow rounded on him.

"No." He spat. "I didn't want him to be cured. He has no memory of our love." The thought of that, ripped Shadow to pieces. Sonic remembered nothing. Their love, their bonding, even their evil tricks. No memory of their battles, their embrace, their pleasure. Nothing. Not even their linking at Julian's base. He wouldn't even remember that Eggman was a clone.

Knuckles stared at Shadow. That was extremely harsh. He sighed.

"If he still loves you in his heart, he will come back around."

Shadow sighed, he wasn't convinced. He loved Sonic so much because he capable of being as evil as him. Was Sonic still capable of loving him? A creature of Chaos dark. Sonic was an annoying creature of Chaos light again, but with no chance of transforming. He would remain Chaos light for the rest of eternity. They loved each other so much because they were both creatures of Chaos dark. Could it still work?

Sonic piped up. "Guys?" he stammered, terrified. He had gotten to his feet and had spotted his wings coming out of his shoulders. He was frightened.

Knuckles turned to Shadow.

"If he's still a vampire, will he still need..." Shadow cut across him.

"Feeding." The black hedgehog hissed. Knuckles nodded, looking worried. Sonic had no memory of turning into a vampire, of being a vampire, of feeding or flying. Nothing.

Shadow nodded in return.

"Don't worry." He reassured the Echidna. "I will teach him."

"He won't like it." Knuckles smirked.

"I know." Shadow sighed. But the black hedgehog couldn't leave him and the Echidna knew it.

"Guys!" Sonic cried at them, really panicking now. Shadow grabbed him and told him about his vampiric origins. Sonic didn't believe him. They knew he wouldn't. Knuckles collected all the Chaos Emeralds and all the Master Emeralds shards he could find. Finally, they moved off.

Back to Tails' House. Mark Two. The house by the desert. Sonic was back, alive but he had a lot to learn. He didn't believe any of it. The mere thought of drink blood physically made him sick. But he didn't have a choice. The hunger drove him mad, but the vampire instincts that used to seriously plague him never surfaced again. But being a vampire, however, Sonic really struggling with. The blood was the most difficult to handle but learning to fly again wasn't so bad

He really didn't like biting Shadow but there was something about that black hedgehog that seriously intriguedhim. He didn't remember Shadow being this...nice. Cold but nice. Shadow was patient, infinitely patient with him. It was as though he was waiting for something. What had happened to him? What had happened to them both? It was a though they had swapped hearts. Shadow was now the one now madly in love and Sonic the one who didn't seem too bothered. Sonic was an immortal, like him. Shadow could wait for him to come round. Shadow could feel the potential was there in Sonic's new heart to love him again. He could wait.

The Chaos Emeralds were dead. Large, clear, powerless crystals. Completely and utterly dead. Shadow had tried to use one to Chaos Control to the Ark and failed. Without a Chaos Emerald, Shadow couldn't return to the Ark. He could return, but it would be immenselydifficult. He would have use a space rocket or build a teleporter to get there. This extremely annoyed Shadow. He wanted to go home, take his beloved with him, but that wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't long before Eggman was back, replaced by another clone. Shadow realised that he had hard work ahead. Tough times. Eggman clones to defeat, a vampire who didn't know how to be a vampire and completely dead Chaos Emeralds.

Yes, tough times ahead indeed.

Sonic's mind was swimming. He had had a lot of information thrown at him in a very short about of time. So his curse, the thing that has been plaguing him all his life, was that he was a vampire. He just didn't believe it.

So the bane of the undead, the curse of the vampire was regret. Sonic now had to live with it. For all eternity. The realisation that he turned evil, killed innocent people, destroyed lives. It went against everything he stood for. It destroyed him. It crucified him. He just couldn't bare it.

But he had a chance to make a mends.

And he wasn't alone.

Shadow was there. He would always be there. Helping him. Guiding him.

Shadow.

The Ultimate Lifeform. Powerful, strong, magnificent.

The love of his life.


End file.
